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| Dangerous Level of Bilirubin in Preterm babies and full term babies |
Usually, newborns have high level of bilirubin compared to
adults for the reason that the livers of newborns are in developing
stage and not yet fully matured. Being immature, the livers of newborns are unable
to process bilirubin as efficiently as adults'
livers perform. As the baby grows, the performance of baby's becomes better for decreasing
bilirubin level.
Several factors impacts the level of bilirubin in
newborns like their gestational age, full term delivery or premature delivery,
health of baby and other medical conditions etc.
If a baby is full term and his health his
good, the bilirubin level found in his blood may be less than 5 mg/dL which
may further increase temporarily for the first few days whereafter the baby's
liver start reducing bilirubin level to
normal.
However, in some cases, high bilirubin level may prove to be dangerous.
For example, if bilirubin level of a newborn baby continue to rise and does not
automatically decrease even after few days.
The dangerous level of bilirubin is different in
full term newborns from premature new born.
In full-term newborns, a bilirubin level of more
than 20 to 25 mg/dL is considered to be dangerous. However, dangerous
level of bilirubin in premature new
born is 15 to 18 mg/dL
A dangerous level of bilirubin in full term newborn may
lead to severe complications like brain damage (in rare cases), developmental
delays, yellowing of eyes and skin.
A dangerous level of bilirubin in premature newborn
may lead to more severe complications as compare to full term like brain
damage, hearing loss, and developmental delays etc.
A phototheorapy or blood transfusion may be suggested
as treatment of high bilirubin. Additionally, if high bilirubin is caused by any
other medical condition, its treatment may
also be suggested according to cause of such medical condition.
However, there are some risks associated with blood
transfusion. Click here to know, how my own preterm new born baby lost his life soon after his blood transfusion
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