[Do drugs in pregnancy modify neonatal jaundice?].

An increased incidence of neonatal jaundice has been observed in babies born to mothers who were treated with different drugs before or during delivery. In this review literature data on such drugs are collected which are under suspicion to produce increased levels of bilirubin in the newborn infant. Despite numerous attempts to show significant effects of these drugs on neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia most of them give contradictory results. Nevertheless, agents that stimulate uterine motility (oxytocin) as well as drugs that inhibit uterine motility (ritodrine) may have an icterogenic effect. Possible mechanisms of their actions are described. Thus, even if there is some association between drugs given prenatally and jaundice developing postnatally, no practical consequences arise except in such cases where additional risk factors may increase the danger of bilirubin encephalopathies in jaundiced infants.