Relationship of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia to neurologic residuals in 372 children followed at least 4 years

Chronic Handicap in Childhood

“…Careful clinical observations with f r e q u e n t biochemical determinations and prompt correction should prevent the more severe degrees of biochemical disturbance from occurring. There is a general relationship between the level of indirect bilirubin in the plasma of the newborn infant and later cerebral dysfunction (Hyman, Keaster, Hanson, Harris, Sedgwick and Wright, 1965), but it is not known to what extent moderate hypeibilirulbinaemia, insufficient to cause clinica?l signs of 'bilirubin encephalopathy, is responsible for sufbsequent disability.…”