EFFECTIVENESS OF CONVENTIONAL PHOTOTHERAPY COMPARED TO OTHER TYPES OF PHOTOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF NEONATAL HYPERBILIRUBINEMIA: INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Considering the relevance and application of phototherapy in the treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in newborns, this article sought to describe the effectiveness of types of phototherapy for neonatal hyperbilirubinemia compared to conventional phototherapy. The present work is an integrative literature review. The searches were carried out in the scientific electronic databases Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde Brasil (BVS), the U.S. National Library of Medicine (PubMed) and Google Scholar. The surveys were updated until September 2022, to check for a possible new study published on the researched topic. To guide the search, the Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were applied. Studies that contained the descriptors in the title, abstract and keywords were selected. The Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" were used, as well as parentheses to facilitate the search for manuscripts. It was concluded that some types of phototherapy, such as circumferential, fiber optic and reflective materials, showed more effective results when compared to conventional phototherapy. While intermittent, home, phototherapy together with KMC and phototherapy plus zinc sulfate were not statistically significant when compared to conventional. One study found that intensive phototherapy, compared to conventional, significantly reduces the need for exchange transfusion. Conventional phototherapy, when compared to fiberoptic, dual and combined phototherapy, was less effective in reducing bilirubin levels. Two studies showed divergence in relation to LED light when compared to conventional phototherapy.