Clinical Outcome in Neonates with Polycythemia

Introduction: Neonatal polycythemia is the principle cause of hyperviscosity of blood in newborn and has been associated with serious, sometimes life threatening insults to the brain, heart, kidney, lungs and intestines. Aims& Objectives: To study the incidence& clinical outcome of polycythemia among inborn babies of GSL general hospital. Results: The incidence of polycythemia was 2.28 %. Among the polycythemic babies (13 babies), term babies constituted 77.4 % and small for gestation babies 54.8 %. Lethargy (61.3 %) was the predominant symptom followed by poor feeding (38.7 %). The predominant laboratory abnormalities were hypoglycemia (32.3 %)& thrombocytopenia (22.6 %). Conclusion: Polycythemia is a silent clinical entity which if unrecognized can result in significant morbidity. Close monitoring is necessary as clinical features in polycythemia may be subtle and babies may be asymptomatic.