Abstract
H EMOLYTIC disease due to maternal isoimmunization by the Rh factor occurs in about, 0.66 per cent of newborn infants. Since the advent OS transfusion therapy, and especiall,v with the USC of exchange transfusion employing female donors, more than !)O per cent of infants born alive with hemoIytic disease a,re saved.’ Nevertheless. the tragic problem of helping heavily sensitized women who give birth repeatedly to stillborn and hydropic infants has not been solved. Moreover, it is a question whet,her exchange transfusion either modifies or prevents kernicterus, the disastrous brain damage which occurs in from 10 to 15 per cent of infants wit,11 hemolytic disease of the newhorn. Personal experience with a large number of cases in our clinic in the past i’our years has served to emphasize the calamitous nature of the Rh problem for some women. Man)cases were discovered during routine blood grouping and Rh testing in pregnancy; others were referred for study as problem cases. Ko over-all statistical validity can be claimed for this somewhat selected material, but it is worth noting that in this series to date there have been 21s cases of hemolytic disease of the newborn. Of this group t,here were 97 fetal deaths ; these cases consisted of 31 st,illborn, 22 hydrops fetalis, 23 kernicterus, 6 infants with severe hemolytic disease, and 15 cases in which further autopsy studies are being caarried out to determine the exact cause of death (see Table I).
Published Version
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