Prevalence of Neonatal Cutaneous Findings in Ain Shams University Hospitals

Abstract

Neonatal skin may show a variety of findings, both physiologic and pathologic skin findings can be seen which may be temporary or permanent. Neonatal and maternal factors have been shown to influence their occurrence and they tend to show a wide geographic variation. The prevalence of skin findings in newborns varies among different sex, and race. There are limited reports of skin findings among Egyptian neonates. The objective of the current study was to record any skin and/or mucous membrane abnormality in newly born infants from birth till 28 days of age. For this purpose 380 neonates were included in the study either born or visiting the outpatient clinics of Ain Shams University Hospitals, in order to recognize the prevalence of different lesions in Egyptian neonates. The results of our study revealed that the prevalence of skin findings among the included neonates in the study were 85.8% (326 neonates out of 380). In our study 85.8% of the examined neonates had one or more skin finding. The diagnosis of skin findings was assigned to six categories: physiological, transient non-infective, infections, birth marks, developmental defects and other findings.