Hello, med students. My name is Zach Olson, and thank you for downloading this week's episode of the EM Clerkship Podcast.

We're doing some more Peds this week. Today, we're talking about neonatal jaundice. And I like this topic, because not only is it important in the department, you do see this,

but it's also going to be on step two.

So it's really high yield.

What you really need to remember about neonatal jaundice is the physiology.

Blood cells break down at either a normal or accelerated pace in some cases, and it releases unconjugated,

undirected, undirected, Billy Rubin into the blood. And this unconjugated Billy Rubin that has

no purpose or direction in its life eventually floats on over to the liver. In the liver, this unconjugated, undirected,

biliruturban finds its purpose.

Its purpose is to leave the body,

and the liver conjugates it.

It gives it directions, and it directs it out.

Head on over to the GI tract,

follow your nose, and the stool will take you up from there.

That's how it works. And in adults, our Billy Rubin is really low because this process is

completely streamlined. But sometimes things don't flow efficiently. And this is especially true in kids.

And that's why babies especially can get jaundice.

It's that Billy Rubin building up.

And if that Billy Rubin hits 25, even less in some of the higher risk kids, they get brain

damage.

They get carnictorous.

And so we have two jobs in an apartment when we have a patient with neonatal jaundice.

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