INTRODUCTION: Although jaundice is very common in the neonatal period, it often recovers spontaneously without the need for treatment. In this study, it was aimed to retrospectively evaluate the patients hospitalized with the diagnosis of hyperbilirubinemia and to determine the risk factors, thus, to early diagnose and guide treatment of severe hyperbilirubinemia.
METHODS: In this study, 250 infants who were followed up and treated for hyperbilirubinemia in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
RESULTS: When all cases were evaluated etiologically, the highest reason was found to be AB0 incompatibility. In 30% of the cases, the direct Coombs test was positive and the most common reason in the cases with positive direct Coombs test was the association of Rh and subgroup incompatibility with a rate of 29.3%. When the treatments applied to the cases were evaluated, phototherapy was given to all patients. It was found that of the patients, 84% received only phototherapy treatment, 6.4% underwent exchange transfusion with phototherapy, 5.2% received IVIG treatment, 4.4% received exchange transfusion and IVIG treatment.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: If neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is not diagnosed and treated early, the morbidity and mortality of the brain damage that can occur is high. Today, while AB0 and Rh incompatibilities, which are an important etiologically important problem, are closely monitored, other etiological conditions such as infections, G6PD deficiency, subgroup incompatibility, hypothyroidism should also be kept in mind and early diagnosis and treatment should be performed.