User:Mr. Ibrahem/Kernicterus

Kernicterus is brain damage due to high levels of bilirubin in a baby's blood. Early symptoms may include poor feeding, decreased activity, jaundice, and vomiting. Complications may include seizures, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, vision problems, problems with teeth, and intellectual disability.

Risk factors include preterm, darker skin, bruising at birth, Rh disease, poor feeding, and certain genetic conditions. Other risks include low albumin, sepsis, and the use of certain medications like ceftriaxone and aspirin. The underlying mechanism involves unbound bilirubin entering the central nervous system and resulting in toxicity to brain cells. Diagnosis is suspected based on symptoms; however, can only be confirmed at autopsy.

Prevention involves treating newborn jaundice with light therapy, increased milk intake, and sometimes exchange transfusion. Once damage has occurred there is no specific treatment. Measures at this point include symptomatic and supportive care. Complications are often permanent, once they occur. About 15% of newborn deaths in the developing world are the result of kernicterus.

Kernicterus is relatively rare affecting about 0.2 to 2.7 per 100,000 newborns. Males are more commonly affected than females. In the United States Black babies are more commonly effected than white. The condition was named in 1904 by Christian Georg Schmorl, though was described earlier in 1875 by Johannes Orth.