Neonatal Medicine Flashcards
Define Stillbirth.
Foetus born with no signs of life ≥24 weeks of pregnancy.
Define Perinatal Mortality Rate.
Stillbirths + deaths within the 1st week per 1000 live births and stillbirths.
Define Neonatal Mortality Rate.
Deaths of live-born infants within the first 4 weeks after birth per 1000 live births.
Define Neonate.
Infant ≤28 days old.
What is the routine examination of the newborn?
- Birthweight and BW centile - gestational age noted
-
General observation
- Appearance, posture, movements, plethoric or pale, jaundice, rashes
-
Head circumference, fontanelle, face, red eye reflex, palate, clavicles
- Cephalohematoma = benign - margins of skull sutures → resolve over few months
- Caput Succedaneum = crosses Suture lines, resolve over few days, start at birth
- Subaponeurotic/subgaleal haemorrhage = diffuse, boggy swellings with hypovolaemia and shock
- Tense fontanelle = raised ICP, caput succedaneum, cephalohematoma, chignon → cranial USS
- Depressed fontanelle = dehydrated
- Hearing test
-
Breathing, chest wall movement, HR, abdomen, cord, hernias, pectus
- Fall off by 40 days
- Femoral pulses, genetalia, anus
-
Muscle tone, whole of back and spine, DDH, hands and feet
- Fully dorsiflex the foot to touch lower leg to see if true talipes equinovarus
-
Primitive reflexes
- Moro, stepping, asymmetric tonic, palmar, Babinskis, etc.
What biochemical screening is done at 7 days old?
- Congenital hypothyroidism
- SCD
- CF - if +ve = check 4 DNA mutation panels
- 6 inherited metabolic diseases
- PKU
- MCADD
- Glutaric Aciduria T1*
- Isovaleric Acidaemia
- Homocystinuria
- Maple Syrup Urine Disease
Describe hearing tests given to neonates?
- 1st line: Evoked Otoacoustic Emission (EOAE) Testing – all babies receive this test!
- Sound emitted into earphone to evoke an echo or emission from the ear if cochlear function is normal
- 2nd line: Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) Audiometry
- A computer will analyse the EEG waveforms evoked in response to a series of clicks
- Indications
- Fails EOAE
- Too young for a regular test
- Severe learning difficulty
What are the indications for Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) Audiometry?
- Fails EOAE
- Too young for a regular test
- Severe learning difficulty
What test should be performed if a neonate misses their EOAE?
Distraction testing
- Make sounds and observe infant’s behaviour to sound
- Carried out at 7-9 months
What is Visual Reinforcement Audiometry?
- Condition child to respond to sound and once they are trained
- Reduce the volume until no longer respond as expected from conditioning
- Carried out between 6m and 3 years - best 10-18 months
What audiometry tests can be carried out on toddlers?
- Visual reinforcement audiometry
- Performance and speech discrimination testing
What is Pure Tone Audiometry?
- Child wears headphones and responds when they hear a sound.
- ≥4 year old
What are the 3 main components of the neonatal and infant physical examination?
-
Observation
- Sex determination
- Cleft palate or foot
- Respiratory effort
- Skin colour
-
Body measurements and Vitals
- Weight
- Length
- Head
- Vitals
- RR 35-60
- HR 120-160
-
Exam of body and organs
- Head to toe
What is Positional talipes?
Feet remain in their in-utero position
What is the management of positional talipes?
Physiotherapy
What is Talipes equinovarus?
Inverted and supinated feet - Club Foot
What are the risk factors for talipes equinovarus?
- Oligohydramnios
- Associated with DDH
What are the signs and symptoms of talipes equinovarus?
- Foot cannot be fully dorsi-flexed to touch front of lower leg
- Inverted and supinated feet
- Affected foot is shorter and calf muscles are thinner
What is the management of talipes equinovarus?
- Mild-moderate = Ponsetti method - plaster casting and bracing
- Severe = Surgery
What is Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy (HIE)?
Ischaemic brain injury as a consequence of perinatal asphyxia.
What is the consequence of untreated severe HIE?
Cerebral palsy
What are the causes of HIE?
- Failure of gas exchange across placenta
- Interruption of umbilical blood flow - i.e. shoulder dystociia
- Inadequate maternal placental perfusion
- Compromised foetus - i.e. IUGR
- Failure to breathe at birth
What are the signs and symptoms of mild HIE?
- Irritable infant
- Responds excessively to stimulation
- Staring eyes
- Hyperventilation
- Hypertonia
- Complete recovery can be expected
How is HIE graded?
Response within first 48 hours
What are the signs and symptoms of moderate HIE?
- Abnormalities of movement
- Hypotonic
- Cannot feed
- Seizures
- Fully resolved by 2 weeks of age = good long-term prognosis
- Persistent past 2 weeks = bad prognosis
What are the signs and symptoms of severe HIE?
- No normal movements or response to pain
- Tone in limbs fluctuates hypo- to hyper-tonic
- Seizures - prolonged and refractory to treatment
- Multi-organ failure may be present
- 30-40% mortality
- 80+% have neuro-disability (if not cooled) → cerebral palsy
What is the management of HIE?
-
Supportive
- Respiratory support
- Anticonvulsants - treat seizures
- Fluid restriction
- Inotropes - treatment of hypotension
- Electrolytes and glucose - treat hypoglycaemia and electrolyte imbalances
- Therapeutic Hypothermia
What is Cerebral Palsy?
Abnormality of movement and posture, causing activity limitation attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing foetal or infant brain.
- Clinical features can emerge over time
What is the diagnosis of a brain injury after 2 years old?
Acquired Brain Injury
What are the risk factors for cerebral palsy?
-
Antenatal
- Preterm birth
- Chorioamnionitis
- Maternal infection
-
Perinatal
- LBW
- HIE
- Neonatal sepsis
-
Postnatal
- Meningitis
What are the causes of cerebral palsy?
- Antenatal - 80%
- Vascular occlusion
- Cortical migration disorders
- Structural maldevelopment
- Genetic syndromes
- Congenital infection
- HIE during delivery - 10%
- Postnatal - 10%
- PVL 2nd to ischemia ± severe intraventricular haemorrhage
- ↑ survival of very premature babies = ↑CP incidence
- PVL 2nd to ischemia ± severe intraventricular haemorrhage
What are the signs and symptoms of cerebral palsy?
-
Delayed milestones
- Non-progressive condition so NO LOSS of previously attainted milestones
- Persistent primitive reflexes
-
Abnormal limb or trunk posture and tone in infancy
- Stiff legs, scissoring of legs
- Unable to lift head
- Unable to weight bear
- Rounded back when sitting
- Hypotonia (floppy)
- Spasticity (stiff)
- Fisted hands
- Feeding difficulties - slow, gagging, vomit
- Oro-motor miscoordination
- Abnormal gait once walking
- Hand preference before 1 year old → esp. spastic unilateral CP
How is gross motor function classified in cerebral palsy?
Gross Motor Function Classification System
- Level 1 = Walks no limitations
- Level 2 = Walks some limitations
- Level 3 = Walks with handheld mobility device
- Level 4 = Self-mobility with limitations - may use powered mobility
- Level 5 = Manual wheelchair
What are the types of cerebral palsy?
- Spastic - 90%
- Unilateral/Hemiplegia
- Bilateral/Quadriplegia
- Diplegia
- Dyskinetic - 6%
- Ataxic/Hypotonic - 4%
What is spastic cerebral palsy?
- Damage to UMN (pyramidal tracts) pathway → increased tone (spasticity), brisk reflexes, extensor plantar, ‘clasp knife’ rigidity
- Clasp knife = increased tone suddenly gives under pressure
- Dynamic catch → faster the muscle stretched, greater the resistance, “velocity dependent”
- Presents early, even neonatally as hypotonia
What are the features of unilateral/hemiplegia cerebral palsy?
Unilateral arm and leg - face spared
- Presents 4-12 months with:
- Fisting of affected hand and asymmetric hand function
- Flexed pronated arm
- With a tiptoe walk on affected side
- Initially flaccid but then ↑↑ tone
- Likely normal PMHx and unremarkable birth Hx
What are the features of bilateral/quadriplegia cerebral palsy?
All 4 limb - often severe
- Involves the trunk
- Opisthotonos (extensor positioning)
- Poor head control
- Low central tone
- Associated seizures
- Microencephaly
- Moderate to severe learning disability
- History of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
What are the features of diplegia cerebral palsy?
Legs affected to a greater degree - but all 4 limbs affected
- Abnormal walking
- Difficulties with functional use of hands
- Associated with preterm birth damage and PVL
What is dyskinetic cerebral palsy?
- Involuntary, uncontrolled movements
- Caused due to damage to basal ganglia
- HIE
- Kernicterus
- Variable muscle tone predominated by primitive motor reflexes
- Chorea → irregular, sudden, brief non-repetitive movements
- Athetosis → slow, writhing movements distally → fanning fingers
- Dystonia → simultaneous contraction of agonist/antagonist muscles → twisted appearance
What is ataxic cerebral palsy?
- Damage to cerebellum → causes hypotonia, ataxia, mal-coordination, delayed motor development ± intention tremor
- Genetically determined
What are the appropriate investigations for suspected cerebral palsy?
- MRI → can determine cause if not clear from history, developmental progress, clinical examination and cranial ultrasound
- Follow-up MDT → if child has risk factors for CP, offer MDT follow-up for 2 years
- Referral of all children with persistent toe walking
What are the early signs and symptoms of cerebral palsy?
- Unusual fidgety movements or abnormal movement
- Abnormalities of tone → includes hypotonia, spasticity or dystonia
- Abnormal motor developing
- Feeding difficulties
- Delayed motor milestones
- Not sitting by 8 months
- Not walking by 18 months
- Hand preference before 1 year
What are the red flag features for neurological conditions that aren’t cerebral palsy?
- Absence of risk factors
- Family history of progressive neurological disorder
- Loss of already attained cognitive or developmental abilities
- Development of unexpected focal neurological signs
- MRI findings suggestive of progressive neurological disorder
- MRI findings not in keeping with CP