Objectives: Our objective is to detect hepatic insult and its potential risk as Co-factor that can be faced by babies admitted to NICU.
Background: Liver may affect by many disorders in neonatal period, the most common are neonatal sepsis (mainly due to gram-negative organisms), hypoxic induced encephalopathy (the common neurological complication in perinatal period).
Patients and Methods: A prospective observational study carried out in NICU of El-Hussein University Hospital included 100 neonates for diagnosis of liver affection associated with other neonatal disorders with exclusion of neonates with multiple congenital anomalies and cases with inborn errors of metabolism during the period from March 2019 to September 2019.
Results: Our results showed a significant male admission with significant occurrence of liver insult in neonates with very low birth weight, neonatal sepsis, HIE, maternal history of PROM, maternal comorbidities, Low APGAR score, presence of splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, liver enzymes elevation, change in bleeding profile and albumin, rise in CRP and alkaline phosphatase enzyme and positive blood culture results.
The results showed significant relation between liver insult and bad outcomes and the use of CPAP, MV.
Conclusion: We conclude that neonates especially with low-birth weight more prone to liver affection if with neonatal sepsis and hypoxic induced encephalopathy.
Recommendation: Any baby admitted to NICU especially with critical disorders (HIE, Neonatal sepsis) must be investigated for liver function tests to rule out hepatobiliary dysfunction.