My Hump, My Hump; My Lovely Little Lumps

I spent a bit of time this morning looking up cephalhematoma, which is the technical term for Audrey’s head lumps. There’s a surprising lack of information on this condition online. This may be party due to the fact that there appear to be at least three accepted spellings of the term—cephalhematoma, cephalohematoma, and cephalhaematoma.

We have our 2-week pediatrician visit on Thursday, where I plan to get the doctor’s opinion on this. But for now, here’s a summary of what I found:

• It’s rare—a 0.2 to 2.5% of live births
  
• It’s caused by prolonged labor or instrumented delivery (e.g. forceps)
  
• It’s a rupture of blood vessels between skull and periosteum
  
• Usually resolves itself over a time period of 2 weeks to 3 months
  
• Residual calcification may occur in 1% of cases

I’m curious to find out the treatment options if calcification were to occur. From looking online, it looks like surgical removal is your only option then.

There are a number of “newborn scalp hematomata”, of which cephalhematoma is only one. Here’s a picture I swiped from wikipedia that compares them.



Basically, Audrey’s is believed to be cephalhematoma instead of one of the others because

• It showed up immediately
  
• It doesn’t hurt
  
• It isn’t changing much
  
• There is no skin discoloration
  
• The lump doesn’t cross suture lines

Here are the two most useful references I found online if anyone is interested in further reading. We’ll let you know what the pediatrician says.

Wikipedia: Cephalhematoma
Family Practice Notebook: Cephalhematoma


“She’s got me spending…”
-- Chris