Yellow alert! How to identify neonatal liver disease.
One baby every day in the UK is diagnosed with a liver disease. Unfortunately a number of these infants experience a delayed referral to one of the three UK specialist paediatric liver centres as their jaundice has either been missed or families have been falsely reassured that their baby's jaundice is "normal". This article looks at what jaundice is and what are the differences between an unconjugated and conjugated jaundice. It also reviews the role that family health care professionals, particularly midwives, health visitors, practice nurses and general practitioners play in identifying infants who may have a liver disease. The article introduces the Yellow Alert campaign, which has a jaundice protocol and care pathway algorithm that should become an essentia part of family health care professionals' assessment toolkit.
Tizzard
Sarah
S
Paediatric Liver Centre, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London.
Yiannouzis
Katie
K
D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D051556:Hyperbilirubinemia, Neonatal / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012017:Referral and Consultation