Patient's question:
Sister has been taking care of the child for three days. When I visited her yesterday, I was told that the child in the next bed has hemolytic disease. These days, the child hasn't been in good spirits and hasn't been eating milk. The jaundice seems to be particularly severe, and the whole family is extremely worried. What exactly is hemolytic disease?Doctor's answer:
Neonatal hemolytic disease is primarily caused by blood type incompatibility between the mother and fetus. The mother's body produces blood type antibodies that are not suitable for the fetal blood type antigens. These antibodies cross the placenta into the fetus, leading to alloimmune hemolysis. The most common types are Rh incompatibility and ABO blood type incompatibility. It can cause anemia, bilirubin encephalopathy, and in severe cases, it may lead to intellectual and motor developmental disorders, and even be life-threatening.