Bili light
medical therapeutic tool to treat newborn jaundice
A bili light is a light therapy tool to treat newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia). High levels of bilirubin can cause brain damage (kernicterus), leading to cerebral palsy, auditory neuropathy, gaze abnormalities and dental enamel hypoplasia. The therapy uses a blue light (420–470 nm) that converts bilirubin into an (E,Z)-isomer that can be excreted in the urine and feces. Soft goggles are put on the child to reduce eye damage from the high intensity light. The baby is kept naked or only wearing a diaper, and is turned over frequently to expose more of the skin.
Conventional bili lights shine from above the baby. A biliblanket consists of a fiber-optic blanket designed to transfer the light from a lamp unit all around the baby's body, and is more commonly used at home.
Neonatal jaundice
Jaundice (Hyperbilirubinemia) is common in newborn babies and presents itself as yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (sclera). About 50 percent of term and 80 percent of preterm infants develop jaundice in the first week of life. This condition also causes babies to appear sick, experience difficulty waking up, make high-pitch cries, or not be able to be fed or gain weight.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bili light” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.