[Hemorrhage from the digestive tract in neonates].

From 1975 to 1984 there were 28,177 newborns 26,367 of them being born at term. In 96 term delivered newborns, bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract occurred at the rate 0.36% of term delivered newborns and at rate of 0.34% of all newborns in the period observed. A higher frequency of bleeding was observed in male (58.3%) than in female (41.7%) newborns. Hematemesis was found in 67.7% and melena in 12.5% of newborns, while 19.8% showed associated symptoms K-vitamin was not given to newborns. The most frequent hematological causes of bleeding were singled out on the basis of normal coagulation findings. There were neither hemorrhagic amniotic fluid nor fissures on the nipples. Fetal hemoglobin was found in the bloody stool. In these children there were no lesions of the mucosa in the oral cavity. The subconjunctival and petechial bleeding in the face already at birth was observed in 18.75% of children. Most of the bleeding observed (44.79%) occurred 48 hours after birth. In 46.9% of cases, the delivery was protracted and in 75% of cases it was terminated surgically: in 43.8% by vacuum extraction and in 31.2% by cesarean section. The percentage of pregnant women who did not take any drugs during pregnancy was 66.7%. Bleeding stopped after the administration of K vitamin and Dicynon in 70.8% of newborns, while in 17.7% transfusion had to be applied. Not a single child was operated on. In the authors' opinion, bleeding in the newborns observed caused by stress: 75% of them were delivered surgically because of asphyxia.