Severe Perinatal Asphyxia and Risk of Neonatal Jaundice at a Tertiary Hospital in Northern Nigeria

Background: The risk factors of neonatal jaundice are largely known, yet there is little agreement on the association between it and perinatal asphyxia.

Aim: To investigate the association between severe perinatal asphyxia (SPA) and the risk of clinical jaundice (NNJ) among neonates managed at the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, Nigeria.

Methodology: Case control design was employed. Medical records of 315 babies managed at the special care baby unit from 1st January, 2011 to 31st December, 2018 were analysed. The exposure of interest was SPA and the outcome was jaundice. Logistic regression was applied to demonstrate the relationship between neonatal jaundice and SPA. Relative risk was provided as odds ratio and 95% confidence interval.

Results: Sixty-three cases and 252 controls were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the cases (4.39) and that of the controls (4.95 ) did not differ significantly (t= -0.52, P= 0.30). One hundred and fifty-six (61.9%) of the controls were males while 34 (54.0%) of the cases were females. For 59 (93.7%) of the cases treatment for jaundice was done with phototherapy and 1.6% required exchange blood transfusion. SPA significantly reduced the risk of developing NNJ (adjusted OR = 0.27, P-value ˂ 0.01).

Conclusion: We demonstrated a significantly reduced risk of developing neonatal jaundice with prior exposure to severe perinatal asphyxia. Prospective multicenter and community based studies correlated with serum bilirubin levels are recommended.