prevalence of kernicterus among Libyan full term healthy babies


Discussion

The results demonstrated that hyperbilirubinemia in full term otherwise healthy infants can lead to severe encephalopathy ,and what remain controversial is the bilirubin level that results in such injury, it is still undetermined whether a continuous linear relationship or a threshold level exists for bilirubin toxicity,we have noticed that all babies with serum bilirubin >40 mg developed Kernicterus ,and those with serum bilirubin ranges between 20-25mg had no kernicterus,and those with serum bilirubin ranges 25-35mg some developed Kernicterus and others had no adverse effect till now, although intellectual out come need years of follow up to declared that they are normal. we have seen that 34 babies out of 70 who received ET developed Kernicterus either because they seek medical advice late or their serum bilirubin was too high ,the other 8 babies who was not treated with ET, 5 of them developed Kernicterus on follow up . The prevalence of kernicterus among our babies was 15%,we tried to compare with worldwide prevalence.