The early diagnosis of congenital abnormalities / R.W. Smithells.

  • Smithells, R. W. (Richard Worthington)
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The early diagnosis of congenital abnormalities / R.W. Smithells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER 3 Examination of tlie Symptomless Infant From the foregoing chapters it is clear that only in a small minority of instances can congenital abnormalities be diagnosed prenatally. In a rather larger number of cases one or other of the alerting factors, such as a family history of hereditary disease or polyhydramnios, will have put the clinician on his guard before the infant is born. There remains a very substantial majority of anomalies that cannot be diagnosed or even suspected before birth. Many of\^ these are obvious on the most superficial inspection of the nnewbor infant, and with them this book is not primarily concerned. This chapter is intended to call attention to those abnormalities that may be overlooked or mis¬ diagnosed by the busy clinician. The initial examination Congenital abnormalities that are not apparent at birth will in many cases declare their presence sooner or later by the appearance of symptoms. As a basic principle it is better, whenever possible, to diagnose these conditions before symptoms arise. Great importance, therefore, attaches to the initial examination of every newborn baby. This examination of babies delivered normally at full term should be made not later than 24 hours after birth, and much earlier if the delivery has been abnormal or premature. The purpose of the initial examination is to assess the general health of the baby and to make a particular search for congenital abnormalities, so that where possible 36