PEDIATRICS Vol. 90 No. 5 November 1992, pp. 757-759
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Kernicterus in Preterm Infants; Lest We Forget (To Turn on the Lights)

N. KEVIN IVES MB, BCHIR, MD1

1 Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford 0X3 9DU, England

Correspondence to (K.I.) Monash Medical Center, Newborn Services Unit, 246 Clayton Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia

Watchko and Oski have a reputation for stimulating debate on the topic of neonatal jaundice. As scriptwriters of "Vigintiphobia: a one-act play,"1 they questioned the `standard practice' applied to the management of jaundice in otherwise healthy term infants. In the current issue of Pediatrics2 they again court controversy by turning their attention to treatment thresholds and the risk of kernicterus in jaundiced preterm infants.

We are provided with a thoroughly researched historical review of the risk of kernicterus in the preterm infant from 1950 to the 1990s. The story is presented as a journey of experience from the pre-intensive care era, through the so-called `low bilirubin kernicterus era' (1965 through 1982), to the present.

Submitted on August 13, 1992
Accepted on August 24, 1992