A study of various causes of indirect hyperbilirubinemia in neonates

Background: neonatal jaundice is a fairly common cause of morbidity in pakistan and accounts for almost 25% of all newborn admissions(1. this may also account for the wide variation in the etiology of jaundice from various reports in pakistan. aim: to describe the etiology hemolytic jaundice in the region of bahawalpur,pakistan and to identify factors determining the severity of hyperbilirubinemia. methods: sixty cases of jaundice were ad mitted in various units of bv hospital/qamc bahawalpur referred from various dhq hospitals of bahawalpur division. they were examined clinically and were investigated hematologically to be differentiated from other groups of jaundice by various routine and special tests like blood count,enzyme assay,rbc fragility and coomb's test etc results: sixty neonates referred to various units of bahwal victoria hospital,bahawalpur during the period of 1 year were investigated for this purpose. 22(36.6%) out of 60 cases of hemolytic jaundice were found to showed exaggerated physiological jaundice,2(3.3%) from g6pd enzyme deficiency,4 (6.6%) were diagnosed as a case of hereditary spherocytosis,8(13%) were of abo incompatibility,10(16.6%) infections 5(8.3%) of drug induced hemolytic anemia. conclusion: it is observed that indirect hyperbilirubinemia may be associated with a wide variety of disease states like cardiac,gi disorders,infections and due to increased pigment production. incidence of hemolytic anemia due to g6pd deficiency needs further probing to evaluate the incidence of this disorder in the population of bahawalpur division initially and then in population of pakistan after collecting data from other areas of the country. © 2016,lahore medical and dental college. all rights reserved.