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Clinical Trial Summary

Cycled (intermittent) phototherapy will be compared to continuous (uninterrupted) phototherapy in the treatment of hyperbilirubinemia (newborn jaundice) in extremely low birth weight newborns in a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Hypothesis: Cycled phototherapy (PT) will provide the same benefits as continuous phototherapy in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants without the risks that have been associated with continuous phototherapy.


Clinical Trial Description

Phototherapy (PT) is widely used and assumed to be safe as well as effective in reducing total bilirubin (TB) levels. Our recent NICHD Network Trial showed that aggressive use of phototherapy reduces neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI), but may increase deaths among ELBW infants. Among ventilator treated infants <750 g birth weight (BW) (n =696), conservative Bayesian analyses (using a neutral prior probability) identified a 99% (posterior) probability that aggressive phototherapy reduced profound NDI but a 99% probability that it increased deaths relative to conservative phototherapy. The possibility that PT increases deaths among high risk infants is also suggested by the Collaborative Phototherapy trial (performed in the 1970s), the only large RCT in which LBW infants were randomly assigned to receive PT or no PT. The relative risk for death among those randomized to PT relative to those randomized to no PT was 1.32 (0.9-1.82) among all LBW infants and 1.49 (0.93-2.40) among ELBW infants. These findings are consistent with a major increase in mortality but have been ignored because the p was >0.05, an error often made in ignoring important potential treatment hazards when power is limited.

Multiple studies, most performed decades ago in larger infants, found that short on/off cycles of PT (e.g. 15 min on/60 min off, 1 h on/3 h off, or 1 h on/1 h off ) are as effective as uninterrupted PT to reduce TSB. (Cycles with >6 h off PT do not appear to be as effective as uninterrupted PT). The clinical use of uninterrupted rather than cycled PT appears to be based largely on the assumption that PT is safe for all infants. ;


Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Prevention


Related Conditions & MeSH terms


NCT number NCT01944696
Study type Interventional
Source The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Contact Jon E Tyson, MD
Phone 713-500-5651
Email jon.e.tyson@uth.tmc.edu
Status Recruiting
Phase N/A
Start date March 2014
Completion date January 2018

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