158 Current Pediatric Reviews, 2017, Vol. 13, No.

3 Editorial

Editorial
Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia
Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia remains the most common condition in the newborn requiring evaluation and man-
agement, and hazardous levels of hyper-bilirubinemia that pose a direct threat of brain damage continue to occur.
This thematic issue of Current Pediatric Reviews addresses several clinically relevant aspects of neonatal hyperbili-
rubinemia detection, genesis and treatment, and how to reduce the risk bilirubin-induced neurotoxicity, including
the role of parental counselling.

Encompassed in this volume are updates on phototherapy and tools to predict severe hyperbilirubinemia; insight-
ful contributions on neonatal hemolysis and its clinical detection in newborns with hyperbilirubinemia, and updated
data on conjunctival icterus as a sign of clinically relevant hyperbilirubinemia. The importance of parental counsel-
ling on neonatal jaundice including the risks hyperbilirubinemia pose for the newborn are emphasized with maternal
empowerment highlighted as a strategy to prevent kernicterus. The terminology used to describe bilirubin-induced
neurologic damage is reviewed and the concept of kernicterus spectrum disorders introduced in the interest of clar-
ity and economy. Finally, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and low-bilirubin kernicterus are re-
viewed in detail given their ongoing, apparently refractory, contribution to kernicterus.

A special thanks to the authors, each one a respected authority in the field, for their considerable efforts in put-
ting together outstanding contributions. These experts and the eight articles contained herein remind us that neona-
tal hyperbilirubinemia is a condition whose clinical relevance has not waned in recent years but in fact remains
quite high and a concern for newborn caregivers worldwide.

Jon F. Watchko
(Guest Editor)
Division of Newborn Medicine
Department of Pediatrics
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Magee-Womens Research Institute
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

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