Evaluating protocol of management of unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia in neonatal intensive care unit at Qena University Hospital

Background: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is a common problem in neonates with an incidence of about 60% in term babies and 80% in preterm babies. It is the commonest cause of admission to the hospitals in the newborn period. We should assess all babies for jaundice at every opportunity. Methods include visual assessment, transcutaneous bilirubinometer (TcB) or total serum bilirubin (TSB). Objective: This is a descriptive study aimed to evaluating the protocol of management of unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia in neonatal intensive care unit at Qena University Hospital. Patients and method(s): This descriptive study included neonates admitted to neonatology unit at Qena university hospital from (April to October 2019), Total number of admitted neonates in our NICU through this period were 1274, from which 517 neonates had jaundice as a primary cause of admission or developed during the course of NICU stay. Result(s): In this period the total number of NICU admission was 1274 cases, out of 517 jaundiced neonates, 100 (19.3%) were diagnosed to have unconjugated jaundice on admission without any associated other diseases and 417 (80.7%) of them were admitted due to other causes and developed jaundice during the course of the disease. The other 417 neonates were admitted to our NICU due to RD in 409 (79.1%) cases, 4 (0.8%) cases due to sepsis, two (0.4%) cases due to CHD and two (0.4%) cases due to surgical causes. The unconjugated neonatal jaundice represented (7.8%) (100 cases out of 1274 neonates admitted during the period of the study). Physiological jaundice represented 89.4% while pathological jaundice represented 10.6% of causes of neonatal jaundice. Regarding treatment of studied neonates 12% of cases need only follow up with no need for Phototherapy, 62.8% of cases needed single or double Phototherapy, 12.4% needed extensive Phototherapy (triple phototherapy), 12.8% of cases needed capsule Phototherapy and no cases needed neither exchange transfusion nor drug therapy. Only 0.4% of jaundiced neonates developed prolonged hyperbilirubinemia, while no complications were detected in 99.6% of cases. We started treatment based on measuring bilirubin by TSB in 62.3% of jaundiced neonates and 37.7% by TCB. The mean values of TSB in jaundiced neonates (11.46 ± 4.92) were significantly higher than the TCB (10.31 ± 4.61), P =0.0005. There was significant positive correlation between mean TSB and mean TCB (R= 0.946, P < 0.001). There was no significant difference regarding mean TSB between different gestational age groups p= 0.242). Conclusions: Hyperbilirubinemia is one of the most common causes of hospital admission in our nursery. Among the causes of hyperbilirubinemia, physiologic jaundice was the most common. Intensive phototherapy is effective in lowering TSB in unconjugated jaundice at / or near levels of exchange transfusion, and this may be helpful in decreasing needs for and risks of exchange transfusions. TcB measurements may underestimate the TSB values, so it should be considered only as a screen and samples should be sent to the laboratory for confirmation especially at high risk groups and high levels of TCB.