Young yellow skin is easy to die

In 2006, the Neonatal Department of Children's Hospital of Ho Chi Minh City received treatment for 900 neonates with neonatal jaundice, including dozens of children with brain complications due to late hospitalization. And the Neonatal Department of Children's Hospital 2 in 2006 received 223 babies with neonatal jaundice, of which 4 had brain complications.

On March 5, grandchildren NNT, 5 days old, residing in Go Vap District-HCM City was taken to the Children's Hospital (BV) in Ho Chi Minh City in the condition of dark yellow skin and limbs. Test results show that bilirubin is too high. Doctors diagnose a patient with jaundice and immediately change blood to reduce bilirubin in the blood. However, due to hospitalization in such a severe condition, only two days later the child died.

Causing coma, seizures, death

NTL, 10 days old, suffering from yellow skin disease who has complications on the brain being treated at the Neonatal Department - 1 HCMC Children's Hospital

Doctor Tran Thi Hoa Phuong, Head of the Neonatal Department, Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital, said most babies have jaundice 36 hours after birth. This is a normal physiological phenomenon due to the destruction of red blood cells of the fetus to replace it with adult red blood cells. When a red blood cell is broken, it releases a large amount of yellow pigment (bilirubin), causing jaundice. Most cases of jaundice in newborns are usually mild and go away on their own after 7-10 days because bilirubin has been excreted in the feces and urine.

However, there are some cases of severe jaundice due to elevated bilirubin that will permeate the brain (medical name called yellow skin), causing children to be comatose, convulsions, death or sequelae of mental movement. forever. Jaundice often appears before 24 hours after birth, darker skin becomes more and more progressive. Maybe in the morning, when the skin is yellow, the skin color turns to dark yellow in the afternoon.

In addition, children also have other manifestations such as quitting, hunching, breathing. Doctor Phuong expressed regret when many children died of late detection of jaundice. In these cases, if detected early, treatment is extremely simple. Patients only need to be illuminated so that bilirubin slowly decreases.

Jaundice due to biliary atrophy

According to Dr. Hoang Le Phuc, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Children's Hospital of Ho Chi Minh City, if after 14 days after birth the child still has jaundice, it is necessary to take the child to a blood test to find the cause. For children who are exclusively breastfed, they can wait up to 21 days. Jaundice in newborns or older children is also a symptom of many other diseases, including congenital biliary atrophy. Babies with congenital biliary atrophy have jaundice symptoms about a week after birth. After that, the young skin will become more and more dark and pale, the stool may be as white as stork. In the first stage, children still suckle well and gain weight, so many parents do not know their children are sick.

Phuc said that the majority of children with congenital biliary atrophy have a very serious condition, affecting treatment results. With congenital biliary atrophy, the child's ability to live is calculated according to each hospital admission date. Going to the hospital late every day will cause patients to lose 1% of their ability to live. Coming late after 3 months, the survival rate is very low. The best surgery period is before the patient is 3 months old. After surgery, some children will return to normal and some children will have cholestasis after 3-5 years of surgery. Cases after surgery show signs of cholestasis or to BV in the late stage will have to wait for liver transplantation.

Doctor Pham Thi Ngoc Tuyet, Head of Gastroenterology Children's Hospital 2, said that congenital biliary atrophy now accounts for 40% -70% of liver transplantation indications in children.

Sunbathing does not treat jaundice

Dr. Tran Thi Hoa Phuong said that the common cause of mothers discouraging late jaundice is to leave the baby in a too tight room.The Neonatal Department of Children's Hospital 2, where it is necessary to isolate, run air-conditioner, every few hours a day also opens the door to exchange air with the outside.According to Dr. Phuong, lying in a dark and overcrowded room will create favorable conditions for germs to grow, and it is difficult to detect children with jaundice.Besides, there are mothers who discover that their children have jaundice and think that they will end up taking sunbathing.In fact, sunbathing for children without calcium deficiency and helping mothers who easily detect jaundice but sunbathing do not treat jaundice in newborns.

Lessons and photos: Thuy Duong