Excessive jaundice can cause cerebral palsy

Although most babies will face the problem of jaundice after birth, if it remains within the normal standard range, it will not cause much impact on the body. As long as the child is well cared for, the jaundice symptoms will disappear after a period of time. If the jaundice index is too high, it will cause a series of complications such as hearing and vision impairment or cerebral palsy. Parents need to pay attention to their children's physical condition at all times.

Jaundice is something that most babies will experience, but not all jaundice can cause cerebral palsy. Only a small number of pathological kernicterus will lead to mental retardation and cerebral palsy in babies.

Although nine out of ten children will develop jaundice, jaundice should not be uncommon. But if it develops into kernicterus due to neglect, that would be dangerous.

1What is kernicterus?

Nuclear jaundice, also known as bilirubin encephalopathy, is mainly caused by the baby's hyperbilirubinemia. Unconjugated bilirubin passes through the blood-brain barrier and damages the central nervous system. The basal ganglia, subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus and other nerve nuclei of the brain are stained yellow. This type of jaundice can easily lead to cerebral palsy in babies.

If serum bilirubin is significantly reduced, the blood albumin concentration is low, or there are substances in the serum that compete with bilirubin for albumin binding sites, such as free fatty acids, hydrogen ions, and certain drugs including sulfonamides, cephalosporins and aspirin, all of which can increase the risk of kernicterus.

2What are the symptoms of nuclear jaundice?

Once a baby is diagnosed with kernicterus, he will be more sleepy, eat less, groan without reason, tilt his head back, have opisthotonos, twitch, and have irregular breathing. The baby will sometimes be surprisingly quiet and will not respond unless you call him.

Is it kernicterus? This is the main purpose: unconjugated bilirubin

Unconjugated bilirubin>256.5umol/L (15mg/dl): This indicates that this is the early stage of kernicterus.

Unconjugated bilirubin>427.5umol/L (>25mg/dl): Kernicterus enters the middle stage and sends out an alarm signal.

Unconjugated bilirubin > 600.5umol/L (> 40mg/dl): At this time, babies with kernicterus will have frequent convulsions, and the situation is already very serious.

3How to treat kernicterus?

The key idea of ​​treating kernicterus is to lower the blood bilirubin in the baby's body.

A. Light therapy: Place the baby's body into the light therapy box, cover the eyes and genitals, and use a single light for one day. The treatment can be stopped when the bilirubin drops below 7 mg/L.

B. Blood exchange therapy: remove free antibodies and sensitized red blood cells in the baby's blood, reduce hemolysis, exchange a large amount of bilirubin in the blood, and prevent the occurrence of bilirubin encephalopathy.

It can also be treated together with traditional Chinese medicine: 10 grams of Junchen, 2 grams of Gardenia, 6 grams of Bupleurum, 6 grams of Poria, 6 grams of Atractylodes, 6 grams of Peach Kernel, 6 grams of Angelica, 6 grams of White Peony, 2 grams of Zhijun, and 2 grams of Licorice. Add water and boil. This prescription can promote the retreat of blood stasis and eliminate accumulation, and has the effect of relieving jaundice and jaundice.

What is physiological jaundice and what is kernicterus?

Physiological jaundice: It usually appears three days after the baby is born, reaches its peak within a week, and usually disappears on its own within 2-3 weeks. Finer yellow marks can be seen on the baby's face and torso, as well as on the forearms, calves, palms and soles of the feet.

Kernicterus: It is a form of pathological jaundice that can occur 24 hours after birth. The jaundice lasts for a relatively long time and is golden or even orange in color, or the jaundice spreads throughout the body, with clear yellowing on the palms and soles of the feet. The bilirubin level in the baby's body can increase by more than 5 mg/dl per day. There is also a very clear feature, the baby's urine will be dark yellow, brown or even soy sauce color.