i was have experience to visited ICU of neonatal
almost of them have problem with jaundice and pneumonia after birth and most;l common is
Newborn jaundice occurs when a baby has a high level of bilirubin in the blood.
Bilirubin is a yellow substance that the body creates when it replaces old red blood cells.
The liver helps break down the substance so it can be removed from the body in the stool.
Neonatal jaundice or neonatal hyperbilirubinemia, or neonatal icterus (from the Greek word ἴκτερος),
attributive adjective: icteric, is a yellowing of the skin and other tissues of a newborn infant.
A bilirubin level of more than 85 μmol/l (5 mg/dL) leads to a jaundiced appearance in neonates whereas in adults a level of 34 μmol/l (2 mg/dL) is needed for this to occur.
In newborns, jaundice is detected by blanching the skin with pressure applied
by a finger so that it reveals underlying skin and subcutaneous tissue.
Jaundiced newborns have yellow discoloration of the white part of the eye,
and yellowing of the face, extending down onto the chest.
treatment The bilirubin levels for initiative of phototherapy varies depends on the age and health status of the newborn. However, any newborn with a total serum bilirubin greater
than 359 μmol/l ( 21 mg/dL) should receive phototherapy
The use of phototherapy was first discovered, accidentally, at Rochford Hospital in Essex, England. The ward sister (nurse) of the premature baby unit firmly believed that the infants under her care benefited from fresh air and sunlight in the courtyard. Although this led to the first noticing of jaundice being improved with sunlight,
further studies only progressed when a vial of blood sent for bilirubin measurement sat on a windowsill in the lab for several hours. The results indicated a much lower level of bilirubin than expected based on the patient's visible jaundice. Further investigation led to the determination that blue light, wavelength of 420-480 nm (peak 458 nm), caused transformation of the trans bilirubin to cis bilirubin, a soluble product that does not contribute to kernicterus. Although some pediatricians began using phototherapy in the United Kingdom following Dr. Cremer's publishing the above facts in the Lancet in 1958, most hospitals only began to regularly use phototherapy ten years later when an American group independently made the same discovery