Tohoku J. Exp. Med.

, 2011, 225, 221 title 221

Letter to the Editor

Newborn Massage and Neonatal Jaundice

Arzu Dursun,1 Ayşegül Zenciroğlu1 and Nurullah Okumuş1
1
Department of Neonatology, Dr. Sami Ulus Child Health and Diseases & Maternity Hospital, Ankara, Turkey

Dear the Editor, study was performed or not.

We read with great interest the article entitled “Baby
Massage Ameloriates Neonatal Jaundice in Full-Term
Newborn Infants” by Chen and co-workers (Chen et al.
2011). The hypothesis of simple body massage might be
helpful for newborn jaundice was really interesting for us.
We would like to make a few comments and to ask a few
questions in order to clarify some unclear issues in their
paper.
First, the authors concluded as “baby massage at an
early stage after birth could reduce neonatal bilirubin levels
and they suggested baby massage is beneficial for amelio-
rating neonatal jaundice” due to increased gastro-intestinal
passage. We wonder whether the power analysis of the
Secondly, 45% (18/40) of the control group underwent
phototherapy, while this figure was 24% (7/29) in treatment
(massage) group. Did the authors perform statistical analy-
sis for this difference? Is the reason for this difference con-
nected to massage by the authors?
Finally, we would like to thank to the authors for their
contribution and their kind responses.
References
Chen, J., Sadakata, M., Ishida, M., Sekizuka, N. & Sayama, M.
(2011) Baby massage ameliorates neonatal jaundice in full-
term newborn infants. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 223, 97-102.

Received October 9, 2011. doi: 10.1620/tjem.225.221

Correspondence: Arzu Dursun, M.D., Department of Neonatology, Dr. Sami Ulus Child Health and Diseases & Maternity Hospital,
Babur Street, No: 44 (06080) Altındag, Ankara, Turkey.
e-mail: arzuson2@gmail.com

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