FACIAL AND EAR DIMENSIONS IN TERM NIGERIAN NEONATES

A study of selected facial and ear dimensions in 200 term and appropri ate-for-gestational age neonates delivered at the University College H ospital,Ibadan, Nigeria, was carried out with the aim of describing th eir normal range of variation and providing reference values for clini cal use, The features studied included inner canthal distance, outer c anthal distance, palpebral fissure length, nasolabial distance, oral i ntercommissural length, total ear length and ear length above the eyel ine. The inner canthal distance ranged from 1.6 to 2.5 cm with a mean of 2.1 (SD 0.2) cm while the outer canthal distance ranged from 5.2 to 7.2 cm with a mean ok 6.1 (SD 0.4) cm. The oral intercommissural leng th ranged from 2.5 to 4.0 cm with a mean of 3.1 (0.3) cm and the total ear length ranged from 2.4 to 4.0 cm with a mean of 3.2 (SLP 0.3) cm, Three per cent of the neonates had the whole ear located completely b elow the eye line. No significant sex differences in the mean values o f any of the dimensions studied were found, The findings of the study are consistent with those of other workers who have documented shorter ears in the Negro neonate compared to his Caucasian counterpart, It i s suggested that local values derived from well-defined populations be used as reference ins the evaluation of the child with dysmorphic fea tures in order to avoid errors of classification due Po racial variati ons in the range of normal.