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A prior study linked newborn phototherapy for hyperbilirubinemia with later risk for seizures, but the study did not control for total serum bilirubin (TSB) levels. To further investigate this association, researchers reviewed records for nearly 500,000 infants born at ≥35 weeks' gestation in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California system from 1995 to 2011, excluding infants who had seizures in the first 60 days of life. The primary outcome was one or more seizure diagnoses plus one or more prescriptions for an antiepileptic drug. Analyses were adjusted for potential confounders, including TSB level.
Overall, 7.6% of infants received phototherapy (6.1% in hospital only, 1.0% home only, 0.5% both); the rate increased from 2.4% in 1995 to 15…