Course of disease
The course of the disease can be very variable. In principle, a nuclear icterus can be highly acute or chronic. The decisive factor here is how fulminant the causative event is, how high the bilirubin levels rise and how well the therapy manages to control the event.
In most cases, this starts with the treatment: Thereupon can be noticeable: Only when the brain suffers progressively does it become apparent: this acute disease is life-threatening. However, if it is survived, consequential damage to the brain can be impressive in the coming years. These are above all neurological failure symptoms like: The full extent of the damage can only be determined while growing up in the following years.
- Visible yellowing of the skin and eyes
- Lethargy
- Drinking weakness
- Limp imposing muscles
- Drowsiness
- Spastics
- Cramps
- Shrill screaming
- Impaired consciousness up to coma
- Muscle paralysis
- Hearing loss
- Development delays
- Intelligence impairments
How contagious is a nuclear icterus?
A nictus is not infectious and therefore not contagious. However, certain circumstances of the mother can provoke a kernicterus in several children one after the other. This can be rhesus incompatibility, for example, whereby maternal antibodies destroy the child’s blood. However, this is not an infection in the true sense of the word either.
