Impact of a Head Covering on Photo-Therapy Induced Hypo-calcaemia in Full-term Neonates with Hyper-bilirubinemia

Background: Hyper-bilirubinemia causes yellowish discoloration of the sclera and skin in newborns and is one of the most common disorders that neonatologists face daily. In the first week of life, 60 percent of term and 80 percent of preterm babies have jaundice. In neonates with unconjugated hyper-bilirubinemia, phototherapy is the most common treatment.

Objective: To compare the occurrence of hypocalcemia in full-term icteric neonates with and without head covering during phototherapy.

Materials and Methodology: Two hundred and eight full-term neonates were split into two groups for photo-therapy for hyper-bilirubinemia. The heads of the participants in the study group were covered with a hat. Before beginning photo-therapy, serum bilirubin and serum calcium levels were assessed, as well as after 48 hours of photo-therapy. SPSS software was used to tabulate and analyze the data.

Results: Ninety-four (45%) of the 208 neonates in the sample were males, while 114 (55%) were females. The average age was 5.56 +2.78 days, and the average weight was 3.04 +0.58 kilograms. Out of 208 neonates, 44 (21%) had hypocalcemia. Hypocalcemia occurred in 28 neonates in the control group and 16 neonates in the study group. There was no symptomatic hypocalcemia in any of the newborns. The p-value for the Chi square test was 0.2. Since this value is greater than 0.05, it is not statistically important.

Conclusion: In comparison to neonates whose heads were not covered, fewer neonates with covered heads experienced hypocalcemia in our research. However, these findings were not statistically important. However, Research in other countries found that neonatal head cover at phototherapy had a substantial impact. As a result, we propose that a major multicenter study be performed in our country to determine the exact significance.