Application and impact of phototherapy on infants

Abstract Phototherapy is also known as light therapy or heliotherapy. This is a type of medical treatment that uses light, such as fluorescent light, sunlight, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), to treat certain medical conditions. Phototherapy for infants is used for medical conditions such as jaundice in children. Jaundice is a medical condition found in newborn babies, and it usually causes yellowing of the body, and it turns eyes color to white. Phototherapy is used to treat Jaundice as a particular frequency of light is used to breakdown the excess bilirubin in the blood to assist in its removal and lower its levels, thus preventing nervous system contamination and other side effects of excess bilirubin levels in the blood stream. This particular research puts emphasis on the use of this treatment procedure on infants to alleviate newborn Jaundice, with a design proposal for a portable phototherapy pouch for jaundiced newborns, so they will be able to get better and quality treatment at home. Comparing present devices on the market and in use by different facilities that offer jaundice treatment, we were able to have specific modifications for the proposed design. In scaling down current phototherapy machines, illuminating pads and points-of-contact with skin were set to remain and power modules and control mechanisms were able to be miniaturized in different orientations. Thus, the desired size and design of the device were theoretically obtained in this research.