Study Status: Not yet recruiting
Recruit Status: Not yet recruiting
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Neonatal, Clinical and Neurodevelopmental Outcome of Neonates Hospitalized for Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia Reaching Exchange Transfusion Threshold in a Remote Setting Alon
Brief Summary:
The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) provides care to refugees and migrant populations along the Thai-Burma border since 1986. Services include antenatal and birthing care, with 2,500 births per year and Special Care Baby Units (SCBU) set up in 2008; all medical records including clinical and laboratory data are archived. The treatment of neonatal jaundice is based on treatment thresholds adapted from the neonatal jaundice guidelines, published by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, UK. Total serum bilirubin (SBR) is done at regular intervals to monitor neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NH) evolution, following SMRU guidelines. The SCBU have been set up to provide intensive care for neonates in a resource constrained setting and don't have equipment for assisted ventilation other than oxygen therapy. Neonates presenting with high serum bilirubin levels and/or clinical signs of acute bilirubin encephalopathy (ABE) cannot receive exchange transfusion on site and have to be referred to the Thai general hospital one hour drive from the clinics; and, for those neonates surviving, there has not been a systematic follow-up of their growth and neurodevelopment.
The study will consist of a matched case-control series and a retrospective review of SCBU charts of neonates with NH reaching exchange transfusion threshold. The SCBU database will be searched for neonates born at ≥ 28 weeks of gestation hospitalized for phototherapy between January 2009 and December 2014; charts will be manually researched to identify study participants which will be classified as NH reaching exchange transfusion threshold (cases) or as NH within moderate threshold (controls). Additionally neurological signs compatible with ABE will be searched in the clinical notes and coded as present/absent. Cases discharged alive from the SCBU will be traced back to evaluate their clinical and