Economic cost savings with the use of total body phototherapy for the treatment of severe neonatal jaundice in Nigeria

Kernicterus and severe jaundice are major contributors to neonatal morbidity in Nigeria and they are commonly treated using invasive exchange blood transfusion EBT techniques Total body phototherapy exposure TBPE is a new technique that avoids the risks of EBT and has been shown to be effective The aim of this study was to evaluate the typical economic savings that result from the clinical success of the TBPE as provided by the Firefly system in a Nigerian new born centre Severely jaundiced neonates who were treated using EBT between January and December were assessed as control cases These neonates were compared to neonates who received TBPE using the Firefly system MTTS Asia Hanoi Vietnam as a first course intervention test cases from December onward A total of severely jaundiced new borns qualified for inclusion including control cases and test cases All TBPE cases were successfully discharged but two mortalities relating to EBT complications were recorded The mean direct cost of treatment per patient was reg US in the control group and reg US in the test group The mean patient burdens for other parameters control test were bacterial infection burden human labour man hours and blood contamination burden The huge relative amount of savings recorded in this study has clearly demonstrated that Firefly reg TBPE is an application that is both affordable and effective in a resource constrained setting Hence we recommend its use in low and middle income countries