All issues > Volume 34(7); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(7):912-920. Published online July 31, 1991.

Neonatal hypocalcemia: clinical manifestations and prognosis.

Jeong Lim Kim¹, Heung Dong Kim¹, Chang Jun Coe¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

Received: February 9, 1991;  Accepted: March 22, 1991.

Abstract

Hypocalcemia during the newborn period is relatively common particularly in infants with predis- posing factors, such as prematurity, low birth weight, birth asphyxia and diabetic mothers and it is often manifested by various clinical findings. Some authors have reported that in some cases of the neonatal hypocalcemia, there were neurologic deficits such as irritability and convulsion, and neur- ologic sequelae on follow up. It is more common for early hypocalcemia, which takes place in the first two to three days of life, to be an association of complicated conditions as perinatal asphyxia, hyaline membrane disease, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, sepsis and so on, and of neurologic sequelae. Total 104 patients with neonatal hypocalcemia who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics, Severance Hospital of Yonsei University College of Medicine from Jan. 1985 to May 1990, were reviewed clinically and following results were obtained. 1) The percentage of the early and late hypocalcemia was 60% and 40% respectively. 2) It was more common for early hypocalcemia to be associated with prematurity, low birth weight, severe asphyxia and respiratory distress than late hypocalcemia and it has statistical signifi- cance (p<0,01). 3) There were neurologic sequelae in 50% and 37% of follow-up cases as early and late neonatal hypocalcemia, respectively. 4) There were neurologic sequelae in 40% and 50% of follow-up cases as simple and complicated neonatal hypocalcemia, respectively.

Keywords :Newborn;Hypocalcemia;Neurologic outcome