title: Current Italian practices regarding the management of hyperbilirubinaemia in preterm infants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the current practices existing in Italy for the management of jaundice in preterm infants as preliminary achievement to a call for national guidelines and establishment of a kernicterus registry.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire (in Supporting Information online) was sent to the 109 level III neonatal units in Italy to ascertain existing guidelines for total bilirubin monitoring and treatment of hyperbilirubinaemia in preterm infants and occurrence of kernicterus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a 61% (67/109) response rate. Eighty-five per cent of responding units had either written guidelines coming from different literature sources or locally developed. The monitoring of bilirubin varied greatly in timing before, during and after jaundice development. Phototherapy and exchange transfusion were given to 56.0 ± 21.0% and 0.2 ± 0.4% of admitted preterm infants in participating centres. Five cases of kernicterus in preterm infants and eleven cases in term infants were documented over the last 10 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The management of hyperbilirubinaemia in preterm infants is not uniform in Italy and would benefit from shared national guidance together with establishment of a kernicterus registry to guide therapy.
authors.affiliation: Section of Neonatology, Department of Surgical and Medical Critical Care, Careggi University Hospital of Florence, Italy. cdani@unifi.It
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dani
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poggi
authors.forename: Jacopo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barp
authors.forename: Costantino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romagnoli
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buonocore
mesh_terms: D001663:Bilirubin / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D007567:Jaundice, Neonatal / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D007647:Kernicterus / Q000453:epidemiology; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012042:Registries
chemical_list: D001663:Bilirubin