All issues > Volume 20(1); 1977

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1977;20(1):54-56. Published online January 31, 1977.

Effect of the phototherapy on intestinal transit time in jaundiced newborns.

Dong Whan Lee, Chong Koo Yun

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

It is well-known that the course of phototherapy, stool colour changes from yellow to green. The occurrence of frequent loose green stools, commencing a few hours after the beginning of treatment, has been observed in several different centers. In order to elucidate the machanism by which phototherapy induces loose stools in newborns, studies were perforned on the speed of intestinal transit by performing the carmine red ftest on 15fullterm newborns, 15jaundiced newborns before and after phototherapy and 15 healthy newborns exposed to phototherapy. The following results were obtained. 1) Intestinal transit time in 15 full term newborns was 12.75+_3.54 hours.(Fig. 1). 2) Intestinal transit time before phototherapy was 13.63+_3.21 hours in 15 jaundiced newborns and it was 7.32+_2.76 hours after phototherapy (Fig. 1). 3) Intestinal transit time in 15 healthy newborns was 13.74+_5.14 hours(Fig. 1). A statistically accelerated intestinal transit was observed in jaundiced newborns treated with phototherapy. The increased rate of intestinal transit produced by phototherapy is probably due to the action of the phototherapy.

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