Medical Definition of Gray baby syndrome (2024)

FAQs

What is GREY baby syndrome in medical terms? ›

Gray baby syndrome is an adverse reaction to chloramphenicol that is characterized by abdominal distention, hemodynamic collapse, and ashen-gray skin discoloration in neonates.

Death occurs in about 40% of patients within 2 days of initial symptoms. The developmental deficiency of glucuronyl transferase and inadequate renal excretion of unconjugated drug in neonates are two responsible mechanisms for the development of Gray baby syndrome.

However, it can affect children up to age two. Infants with gray baby syndrome experience a sudden drop in blood pressure. A baby's skin and nails will often turn a gray color from lack of oxygen, while the lips turn blue.

With sepsis being a complication of severe gray baby syndrome, usage of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as vancomycin, for example, is a recommended treatment option. Third generation antibiotics have also proven efficacy in treating gray baby-induced sepsis.

Benzodiazepine intake during early pregnancy may be teratogenic, and their intake during late pregnancy may be associated with neonatal withdrawal syndrome and 'floppy infant' syndrome.

What color will gray baby eyes turn? At birth, your baby's eyes may appear gray or blue due to a lack of pigment. Once exposed to light, the eye color will most likely start to change to blue, green, hazel, or brown over a period of six months to one year.

... Red baby syndrome: it occurs in infants and young children due to parvovirus B19 infection. 15 There is an abrupt onset of high grade fever, generalized erythema with swelling and tenderness of skin.

Blue baby syndrome, also known as cyanosis, is when your baby's skin has a bluish discoloration, especially when they cry. The discoloration is most obvious in your baby's lips and hands. This condition is caused when there is a shortage of oxygen in your baby's blood.

Abstract. In a therapeutic tragedy perhaps even more widespread than the thalidomide disaster, untold lives were lost between 1949 and 1958 through the administration of inappropriate doses of chloramphenicol to newborn infants.

What causes a baby to be born without a hand? ›

In babies with symbrachydactyly, the fingers (and sometimes the hand and arm) don't fully form during this time. This may happen because the area doesn't get enough blood flow or because of some other problem with the tissue. It's not caused by anything the mother did or did not do while she was pregnant.

Chloramphenicol is a medication used in the management and treatment of superficial eye infections such as bacterial conjunctivitis, and otitis externa. It has also been used for the treatment of typhoid and cholera. Chloramphenicol is an antibiotic and is in the class of antimicrobials that inhibits protein synthesis.

The skin discoloration only occurs in newborns with cholestasis and elevated serum concentrations of both conjugated and unconjugated bilirubin. Thus, a combination of hepatocellular dysfunction and increased accumulation of bilirubin products from photodestruction during phototherapy is required for BBS.

The surgical procedure joined an artery leaving the heart to an artery leading to the lungs to give the blood a second chance at oxygenation. The joining (anastomosis) was of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery. It was the first blue baby operation and came to be known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt.

Gray baby syndrome: A syndrome due to toxicity of the antibiotic chloramphenicol in the newborn, especially the premature newborn, because of lack the necessary liver enzymes to metabolize this drug.

Blue baby syndrome is most commonly caused by an underlying heart condition, such as the following: Truncus arteriosus. In this type of heart defect, only one artery, instead of two, carries blood from the heart. This is a condition that some babies are born with.

Infant methemoglobinemia is also called “blue baby syndrome.” It is a condition where a baby's skin turns blue. This happens when there is not enough oxygen in the blood. Parents should immediately contact a physician if baby's skin is unusually bluish in color.