Massive subaponeurotic haemorrhage in babies of African origin.

Newborn babies of African origin occasionally undergo massive haemorrhage into the soft tissues of the scalp. The resulting haematoma differs from the more usual variety of cephalhaematoma in being anatomically subaponeurotic, not subperiosteal. Not being confined by periosteal attachments, the haematoma is not limited to the area overlying a single skull bone, but extends through the soft areolar tissue of the scalp and covers the whole calvarium beneath the epicranial aponeurosis. Consequently this variety of haematoma may be far larger than a subperiosteal cephalhaematoma, and the blood loss into it may almost exsanguinate the infant. The purposes of this report are first to draw atention to the occurrence of this condition in African and West Indian babies and to the severity of the blood loss, and secondly to describe a simple rough method of calculating the extent of blood loss.