What is the difference between Gilbert and Crigler-Najjar syndrome?

Gilbert’s syndrome is an inherited condition often discovered by accident, such as when someone has a blood test. It occurs due to a defect in the processing of bilirubin by the liver. The syndrome may cause the skin and the whites of the eyes to have a yellow tinge due to the build-up of bilirubin.
Gilbert’s syndrome is typically harmless and treatment isn’t required.

What is the difference between Gilbert and Crigler-Najjar syndrome?

Morbus Gilbert is a mild hyperbilirubinemia, which is only of significance in the case of drug therapy or differential diagnosis. Crigler-Najjar syndrome II leads to a more serious kind of hyperbilirubinemia.

Gilbert syndrome characterized by jaundice with intermittent elevations of indirect bilirubin, in the absence of hemolysis or underlying liver disease, has both autosomal dominant and recessive inheritance. Crigler-Najjar syndrome type II (CNS2) is a hereditary disorder of bilirubin metabolism characterized by unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia due to reduced and inducible activity of hepatic bilirubin glucuronosyltransferase (GT).

We report 20 children between ages 5 to 15 years with unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia who were given seven days of oral phenobarbitone (5mg/kg/day) and a decrease in the level of bilirubin was noted.