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Jaundice: a 10 year review of 41,000 live born infants
Author(s) -
PALMER DIANE C.,
DREW JOHN H.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1983.tb02063.x
Subject(s) - medicine , exchange transfusion , jaundice , abo incompatibility , necrotizing enterocolitis , pediatrics , abo blood group system , sepsis , erythroblastosis fetalis , kernicterus , etiology , surgery , pregnancy , fetus , genetics , biology
. A review is presented of jaundiced newborn infants during the 10‐year period to 1980. Included are those whose serum bilirubin level was 154 μmol/l or more. Of 41,057 live births, 4,406 (10.7%) infants had hyperbilirubinaemia. The most common (19.9;%) aetiological factor was prematurity, followed by ABO erythroblastosis 7.1%; sepsis 3.4%; Rhesus erythroblastosis 2.7%; bruising 2.2%; multifactorial 1.0% and glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency 0.5%. Treatment was not undertaken in 2,855 (64.7%) infants, but 1,419 (32.2%) received phototherapy alone, 122 (2.7%) infants received both exchange transfusion and phototherapy and 10 (0.2%) infants received exchange transfusion alone. Of the infants requiring exchange transfusion 50.0% had Rhesus erythroblastosis, 28.0% ABO erythroblastosis, 10.6% jaundice of prematurity and the remainder were due to a variety of causes. Sixty‐three (1.4%) infants died, with two deaths being related to the hyperbilirubinaemia, as their death was due to necrotizing enterocolitis following exchange transfusion. Phototherapy proved safe with no deaths directly attributable to its use.