Neonatology

It is a hospital-based specialty and is usually practised in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). The principal patients of neonatologists are newborn infants who are ill or require special medical care due to prematurity, low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, congenital malformations (birth defects), sepsis, pulmonary hypoplasia or birth asphyxia.

SPECTRUM OF CARE
Rather than focusing on a particular organ system, neonatologists focus on the care of newborns who require Intensive Care Unit (ICU) hospitalization. They may also act as general paediatricians, providing well newborn evaluation and care in the hospital where they are based. Some neonatologists, particularly those in academic settings, may follow infants for months or even years after hospital discharge to better assess the long-term effects of health problems early in life. Some neonatologists perform clinical and basic science research to further our understanding of this special population of patients.

The infant is undergoing many adaptations to extrauterine life, and its physiological systems, such as the immune system, are far from fully developed. Diseases of concern during the neonatal period include:
  1. Anaemia of prematurity
  2. Apnea of prematurity
  3. Atrial septal defect
  4. Atrioventricular septal defect
  5. Benign neonatal hem angiomatosis
  6. Brachial plexus injury
  7. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
  8. Cerebral palsy
  9. CHARGE syndrome
  10. Cleft palate
  11. Coarctation of the aorta
  12. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia
  13. Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
  14. Congenital heart disease
  15. Diffuse neonatal hem angiomatosis
  16. DiGeorge syndrome
  17. Encephalocele
  18. Gastroschisis
  19. Hemolytic disease of the newborn
  20. Hirschsprung disease
  21. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
  22. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
  23. Inborn errors of metabolism
  24. Intraventricular haemorrhage
  25. Lissencephaly
  26. Meconium aspiration syndrome
  27. Necrotizing enterocolitis
  28. Neonatal abstinence syndrome
  29. Neonatal cancer
  30. Neonatal jaundice
  31. Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome
  32. Neonatal lupus erythematosus
  33. Neonatal conjunctivitis
  34. Neonatal pneumonia
  35. Neonatal tetanus
  36. Neonatal sepsis
  37. Neonatal bowel obstruction
  38. Neonatal stroke
  39. Neonatal diabetes mellitus
  40. Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia
  41. Neonatal herpes simplex
  42. Neonatal hemochromatosis
  43. Neonatal meningitis
  44. Neonatal hepatitis
  45. Neonatal hypoglycemia
  46. Neonatal cholestasis
  47. Neonatal seizure
  48. Omphalocele
  49. Patent ductus arteriosus
  50. Perinatal asphyxia
  51. Periventricular leukomalacia
  52. Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn
  53. Persistent truncus arteriosus
  54. Pulmonary hypoplasia
  55. Retinopathy of prematurity
  56. Spina bifida
  57. Spinal muscular atrophy
  58. Supraventricular tachycardia
  59. Tetralogy of Fallot
  60. Total (or partial) anomalous pulmonary venous connection
  61. Tracheoesophageal fistula
  62. Transient tachypnea of the newborn
  63. Transposition of the great vessels
  64. Tricuspid atresia
  65. Trisomy 13/18/21
  66. VACTERL/VATER association
  67. Ventricular septal defect
  68. Vertically transmitted infections

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