More recent studies have investigated children who have had hyperbilirubinemia without any other symptoms and they have come to conflicting results. We have found six recent studies on asymptomatic children with prolonged jaundice who have evaluated any bacteriuria in that way. Four studies from different parts of the world, Iran, Turkey and the USA, including a total of 484 neonates showed bacteriuria in between 6 and 18 % of the infants [1, 5, 7, 9]. A study in 154 UK infants could only confirm significant bacteriuria in one child. A further UK study found no pathology of any kind in 197 infants with prolonged jaundice. In summary, our study confirms previous UK data since only 1 out of 319 of the infants with prolonged unconjugated jaundice was shown to have a significant UTI. It might thus be inappropriate to request urine culture in all infants with prolonged jaundice although recent NICE guidelines recommend this practice. Authors' contributions Dr. Chowdhury did take part in planning the study, did the actual study, analyzed the data, wrote the first draft of the manuscript and approved of the final draft; Dr. Kisat planned the study, saw the
More recent studies have investigated children who have had hyperbilirubinemia without any other symptoms and they have come to conflicting results. We have found six recent studies on asymptomatic children with prolonged jaundice who have evaluated any bacteriuria in that way. Four studies from different parts of the world, Iran, Turkey and the USA, including a total of 484 neonates showed bacteriuria in between 6 and 18 % of the infants [1, 5, 7, 9]. A study in 154 UK infants could only confirm significant bacteriuria in one child. A further UK study found no pathology of any kind in 197 infants with prolonged jaundice. In summary, our study confirms previous UK data since only 1 out of 319 of the infants with prolonged unconjugated jaundice was shown to have a significant UTI. It might thus be inappropriate to request urine culture in all infants with prolonged jaundice although recent NICE guidelines recommend this practice. Authors' contributions Dr. Chowdhury did take part in planning the study, did the actual study, analyzed the data, wrote the first draft of the manuscript and approved of the final draft; Dr. Kisat planned the study, saw the