Body Temperature Changes of Newborns Under Fluorescent Versus LED Phototherapy: Authors’ Reply

Excerpt

To the Editor: We read with great interest the comments of Aydın et al. on our recent article that compared the body temperature (BT) changes of newborns under conventional phototherapy with fluorescent lamps and light emitting diodes (LEDs) at different irradiances [1]. Intensive phototherapy is defined as irradiation of at least 30 μW/cm²/nm which can be easily achieved by LEDs [2]. However, an upper safety limit for intensive LED phototherapy has not been reported. The LED based phototherapy devices we have been using in our neonatal intensive care unit have 5 different levels of light intensity with a wide range of a spectral irradiance (30–120 ± 10 μW/cm²/nm). We had observed hyperthermia in a significant number of our patients who received LED phototherapy at level 3 and higher. Then, we planned a study to investigate changes in body temperature in term and late preterm infants during LED phototherapy at different irradiances. …