A Study of Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia in Mid-Western Part of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is a common cause of hospital admissions. Serum Bilirubin depends on birth weight and gestational age. Common causes of neonatal jaundice are physiological jaundice, breast feeding/milk jaundice, prematurity and pathological causes. Surmount total serum bilirubin over critical level, crosses the blood brain barrier leading to kernicterus. Prompt identification and proper management is of great importance otherwise there is a risk of bilirubin encephalopathy.

Objectives: To find out the prevalence and causes of neonatal jaundice in our setting and treatment modalities undertaken.

Materials and methods: A hospital based descriptive study was done among total newborns including both inborn and out born admitted in NICU, NGMC over the period of one year. A total 288 newborns with jaundice were enrolled in the study .Data were entered in excel and th analyzed in SPSS 18 version. Descriptive data were presented through pie, bar graph, and table with frequency and percentage.

Results: Prevalence of neonatal jaundice was 31%. Causes of neonatal jaundice were physiological and pathological in 56% and 44% cases respectively. Among the pathological causes ABO incompatibility was the most common cause seen in 11.4% cases followed by sepsis seen in 8.7% cases.

Conclusions: Phototherapy is very effective treatment modality to reduce the serum bilirubin in most of the cases neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and if the bilirubin crosses the cut off limit according to Bhutani's chart then we have to consider exchange transfusion. Appropriate management in time leads to satisfactory outcome.