cephalhaematoma
Last reviewed 01/2018
- a cephalhaematoma is a bruise on a neonate's head resulting from prolonged stage II of labour or from instrumental delivery, especially ventouse
- a cephalhaematoma represents a subperiostial swelling - therefore its boundaries is limited by the individual bone margins
- the misshapen head can cause some parental alarm, but they can be reassured that it will resolve with time. The swelling is fluctuant
- complications of very large cephalhaematomas include anaemia from the quantity of bleed into the haematoma and jaundice from haemolysis within it. These are rare.