Twenty-seven years of experience with oral vitamin K1 therapy in neonates.

Healthy term infants born at the University of Missouri have received vitamin K prophylaxis as a single oral dose since 1967. A retrospective study was undertaken to determine whether either hemorrhagic disease of the newborn or any unexplained intracranial hemorrhage occurred in an infant who received orally administered vitamin K, but none could be found in three separate databases. We conclude that we have met our duty of providing appropriate care.