A retrospective survey of neonatal postmortems over a 10-year period was made to establish the incidence of kernicterus and the associated laboratory abnormalities. Cases with evidence of kernicterus without hyperbilirubinaemia were found to have significantly lower reserve albumin-binding capacity (RABC) than the control group. The results suggest that RABC estimation is a necessary adjunct in the assessment of the jaundiced, low birth-weight neonate.