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Phototherapy is the conventional approach to preventing serious neurologic sequelae in newborns with elevated bilirubin levels. This two-part randomized study in Greek newborns found that Sn-mesoporphyrin (SnMP), an inhibitor of bilirubin production, can replace phototherapy for treating physiologic jaundice. SnMP was administered as a single intramuscular injection of 6 micromoles/kg, using predetermined criteria for when to start treatment, when to change to phototherapy or exchange transfusion, and when to consider the hyperbilirubinemia resolved. In the first trial, among 22 pairs of male term newborns, SnMP was superior to phototherapy in 20 infant pairs and equal in the other 2 pairs. The second study, involving 20 pairs of near-term …