Studies on maturity in newborn infants. IX. Further observations on the use of external characteristics in estimating gestational age.

A simple method for assessing maturity based on 8 external characteristics has previously been described. Some new results with the use of this method are now presented. The precision in estimating gestational age is sufficiently good, more than 95% of the infants were correctly estimated within +/- 3 weeks. Reducing the criteria to seven and thereby excluding the ophthalmoscopic examination did not significantly change the precision of the estimation. The examination based on external characteristics is a very simple and useful method for maturity assessment, even in sick newborn infants. Tables for transforming maturity score into gestational age are presented.