All issues > Volume 15(8); 1972

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1972;15(8):743-751. Published online August 31, 1972.

Studies on the Causes of Anemia in Newborn Infants

T.W Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University

Abstract

Studies were done for the causes of anemia on 964 newborn infants delivered at Seoul National University Hospital from April, 1970 to September, 1971. Mean hematocrit values in capillary blood were lower than the data reported by other authors showing about 3〜4% difference. The causes of anemia are as follows: 1. Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn 2 2. Multiple congt'nital anomaly 1 3. Large cephalhematoma 6 4. Bleeding from umbilicaI cord 4 5. Hemorrhagic caput succedaneum 1 6. Secondary hemorrhagic disease of the newborn 1 7. ABO incompatibiIity 8 8. Sepsis 2 9. Congenital syphilis 1 10. Feto.maternaI transfusion 1 11. Physiologic anemia Suggestive cases 1 12. Twin-to-twin transfusion 1 Sepsis 1 Bleeding from umbilicaI cord 1 Anemia with hyperbililubinemia, unknown origin 4 13. Unknown 14 Types of hemorrhage inducing anemia in newborn infants were variable, and in which large cephalhematomas were most common causes. ABO incompatibilities were the most common causes of hemolytic anemia of the newborn. No case due to Rh incompatibility was found in this series. In feto-maternal transfusion study, there was only one case presenting about 20〜30cc transfusion. Among 34 icteric cases in which dye decoloration test was performed no case of G-6-PD deficiency was found. There were many cases in which no definite causes were identified and about them, more extensive studies will be necessary in future.

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