These treatment thresholds were created in 2016 to help guide phototherapy in newborns born at 35 weeks gestational age and older. These treatment thresholds, which were based upon expert opinion of members of the UCSF Northern CA Neonatal Consortium (NCNC) and newer evidence since 2004, do not determine standard of care.
In August 2022, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published an updated clinical practice guideline (CPG) guiding the management of hyperbilirubinemia in newborns 35 weeks or older. You can find the new AAP guideline here. Though similar, the treatment thresholds between the NCNC and the AAP guidelines are slightly different.
This tool shows the NCNC's 2016 treatment guidelines. The current (2022) treatment thresholds of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are provided as a comparison below.
The NCNC is now adopting the AAP's CPG on the Management of Hyperbilirubinemia in the Newborn Infant 35 or More Weeks of Gestation and retiring their 2016 NCNC Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia Guideline. The 2022 AAP CPG should be considered current standard of care for the use of phototherapy in newborns at this time. Therefore, the website tool you are now viewing will be retired on June 30, 2023. Other online tools are now available for the 2022 AAP CPG.
If you have questions about this website, please email mabel.chan@ucsf.edu
This calculator is intended to provide a user-friendly interface to the NCNC guidelines. Professional judgment should be used in applying the results in clinical settings.
| Neurotoxicity risk factors* | Start phototherapy? | NCNC Phototherapy Threshold | NCNC Exchange Transfusion Threshold | Within 2 mg/dL of Exchange Transfusion Threshold? |
| ABSENT | ||||
| PRESENT |
| Neurotoxicity risk factors* | Start phototherapy? | AAP Phototherapy Threshold |
| ABSENT | ||
| PRESENT |
You may now call this calculator automatically (for example, from an Electronic Medical Record system) using its simple API. See the API instructions for details.