Emergencies in Neonatal Management: Jaundice and Biliary Atresia

A common reason for a delay in performing the necessary testing and making the correct diagnosis is neonatal age, which is a period in life commonly characterized by the presence of jaundice due to normal physiologic causes and breast feeding, resulting in transiently elevated unconjugated bilirubin levels which are typically self-limited and benign [1,2]. More rarely, neonatal jaundice is simply due to immaturity in the hepatic mechanisms of bile secretion, a transitory and benign condition characterized by a mixed hyperbilirubinemia with mildly elevated serum hepatic transaminases that spontaneously resolve within a few weeks of life.