Late preterm gestation is an important risk factor for the development of severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and kernicterus. An exaggerated hepatic immaturity contributes to the greater prevalence, severity, and duration of neonatal jaundice in late preterm infants. Breast milk feeding is almost uniformly present and large for gestational age status, male sex, and G6PD deficiency are over-repr...

Despite efforts to eliminate permanent and irreversible brain damage due to bilirubin encephalopathy and kernicterus, these conditions continue to accompany us into the third millennium. This phenomenon occurs not only in developing countries with emerging medical systems, but in Westernized countries as well. Comprehensive guidelines to detect newborns with jaundice and treat those in whom hyp...

Kernicterus, one of the most easily preventable causes of brain injury from severe neonatal jaundice, has re-emerged in the United States and other nations with well developed healthcare systems as a public and societal health concern. Kernicterus, in its usually recognized form, causes devastating disabilities including athetoid cerebral palsy (CP) and speech and hearing impairment. It represe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE MR examination of infants with kernicterus shows abnormal changes in signal intensity in various parts of the brain, including the globus pallidus and subthalamic regions. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyze proton ((1)H) MR spectroscopic data to see if the MR spectroscopic profiles of infants with hyperbilirubinemia and symptoms of kernicterus provid...

Kernicterus, a preventable brain injury resulting from severe neonatal jaundice, has reemerged in the US (1–3). Newborn jaundice, a usually benign condition that typically resolves with supervision and appropriate nutritional intake, can progress to severe hyperbilirubinemia in 8–10% of healthy newborn infants. Severe hyperbilirubinemia may need treatment with phototherapy. Some newborns discha...