Dermatoses in the first 72 h of life: a clinical and statistical survey.

BACKGROUND: The neonatal period is generally regarded as the first 28 days of extrauterine life. Skin disorders are commonly seen in the neonatal period, most of which are transient and limited to the first days or weeks of life. In spite of being so frequent, these transient conditions usually escape dermatologist's observations, and consequently few have been studied.

AIMS: The study was designed to identify the dermatoses in the first 72 h of life; to report the relationship among the most common dermatoses with the newborn's features; and to verify how often dermatoses are reported by the neonatologist.

METHODS: The authors carried out a cross-sectional study on newborn's dermatoses in a brazilian public hospital, including 203 healthy neonates, until 72 h of age, with skin disorders.

RESULTS: Out of 34 different skin diagnosed conditions, hypertrichosis lanuginosa, Mongolian spot, sebaceous hyperplasia, epidermal hyperpigmentation, erythema toxicum, and salmon patch were the most frequent ones. The dermatoses with statistical significance were: Mongolian spot and epidermal hyperpigmentation with the non-white newborns; erythema toxicum and cutis marmorata with the white newborns; salmon patch with the female sex; physiologic desquamation with the cesarean section; acrocyanosis with the first pregnancy birth and Bohn's nodules with the vaginal delivery.

CONCLUSIONS: Thirty-four different types of dermatological alterations were identified in the healthy newborn within 3 days of life at the Maternity School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Underreporting of dermatoses with serious medical significance shows the importance of a dermatologist in the neonatal unit of a hospital.