Clinical characteristics of term newborns with hiperbilirubinemia and identification of the risk factors for hiperbilirubinemia Original Article

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics of newborns with nonhemolytic hiperbilirubinemia and identify the risk factors for hiperbilirubinemia Material and Methods: This study was a retrospective medical chart review The records of 427 full term healthy newborns who were admitted to Şişli Etfal Hospital Neonatology Department from 2000 to 2003 with the diagnosis of hyperbilirübinemia were reviewed Infants with hemolytic diseases infection or other underlying causes were excluded Hyperbilirubinemia was defined and phototherapy was initiated according to the guidelines proposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics Results: The gender mean gestational age and mean birth weight of the infants were 59 male 41 female; 38 7±0 7 weeks and 3152±469 g 1990 4600 respectively At the hospital admission their mean body weight was 3030±490 g 1740 4450 mean postnatal age was 5 8±3 6 days 2 18 and mean total serum bilirubin level was 20 1±4 8 mg dl 12 9–36 5 The lenght of hospital stay was 4 2±3 3 days 1 8 and the duration of exposure to phototherapy was 29 5± 13 7 hours 12 96 None of the babies required exchange transfusion Hyperbilirubinemia was found to be more frequent in the first babies and male gender however there was no significant association with severity of hyperbilirubinemia Infants who were fully breast fed and delivered by vacum extraction had higher bilirubin levels at the hospital admission Excessive weight loss gt;10 of their birth weight was found to be a significant risk factor for developing hyperbilirubinemia p:0 006 Other factors including birth weight place and mode of delivery sectio vs normal vaginal were considered in the regression model but not found to be significantly related to hyperbilirubinemia Conclusion: This study confirms that although severe hyperbilirubinemia is relatively uncommon in healthy full term babies infants at risk must be carefully monitored Poor caloric intake and excessive weight loss have been correlated with an increased risk of hyperbilirubinemia Key words: hyperbilirubinemia risk factors term newborn weight loss