Jaundice in healthy term newborns treated at a tertiary center in Porto Alegre, RS

Introduction: About 60-80% of the newborns (NB) experience jaundice in the first days of life. Although jaundice is often a transitory phenomenon, some infants require hospital care. The aim of this study was to determine the main cause of neonatal jaundice among healthy newborns admitted to the Hospital Luterano and the possible associations with a number of clinical variables. Methods: A retrospective study in which all cases of NB with neonatal jaundice admitted for treatment of hyperbilirubinemia at the Neonatal ICU of the Hospital Luterano of ULBRA were studied, from Apr 2007 to Dec 2008. The results were expressed as descriptive statistics, and Fisher’s exact test and the Chi-square test were applied. The alpha limit considered was 5%, with level of significance at 0.05. Results: Among the 74 NB studied, 52.7% were males and 45.9% were females. 14.8% of the infants had a vaginal birth, while 85.1% had a cesarean delivery. Most of the studied infants (74.3%) were born full term. The most frequent cause for (37.8%) jaundice among these patients was inadequate intake. The male patients needed to stay longer on phototherapy than female patients (p=0.056). Conclusion: Low intake by the patient was the most frequent cause of jaundice in this series. The boys needed significantly more time on phototherapy than females, and there was a positive association of hyperbilirubinemia with low age.