Henna: A cause of life threatening hemolysis in G6PD-deficient patient

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency is the most important disease of the hexosemonophosphate pathway and is responsible for neonatal jaundice that can be very severe in g6pd deficiency and induces permanent damage to the brain and causes kernicterus and death. henna is a traditional cosmetic agent to stain the hair, skin and nails. it can cause hemolysis in g6pd deficient patients because of lawsone (2-hydroxy-1, 4naphthoquinone) that has oxidative properties similar to naphtalin. we report on a 35 days boy with jaundice (bil: 50.2), hemogluinuria and kernicterus symptoms after application of henna on his skin. in laboratory test his g6pd enzyme activity was deficient.