Background: Premature cranial suture fusion may prevent neonatal skull malleability during birth, increasing the risk of unplanned cesarean delivery and neonatal birth trauma caused by cephalopelvic disproportion. We sought to determine the incidence of perinatal maternofetal complications in cases of craniosynostosis.
Methods: Records of children presenting with nonsyndromic craniosynostosis to a tertiary pediatric hospital from 1996 to 2012 were reviewed retrospectively with focus on birth history and birth-related complications.
Results: Six hundred eighteen births were reviewed. Rates of cesarean delivery among mothers of children with craniosynostosis [n = 201 (32.5 percent)] exceeded the overall regional rate of 24.5 percent (OR, 1.50; p < 0.0001). Unplanned cesarean delivery occurred in 19.7 percent of births, and were most associated with nulliparous mothers, breech fetal presentations, and lambdoid or multisuture synostosis patterns. Eleven neonates (1.8 percent) exhibited cranial birth trauma, including cephalohematoma and subgaleal hematoma. Neonates with sagittal or multisuture synostosis patterns were more likely to suffer birth trauma and had a higher mean head circumference than those who did not (81st versus 66th percentile, p < 0.05).
Conclusions: In the setting of craniosynostosis, birth trauma is increased-for mothers in the form of increased cesarean delivery risk, and for fetuses in the form of subgaleal and subperiosteal perinatal bleeding. Difficult maternal labor may be mediated especially by multisuture or lambdoid synostosis, whereas fetal birth trauma may be mediated to a greater extent by large head size. Prenatal diagnosis of craniosynostosis could influence decision-making in the management of labor.
Clinical question/level of evidence: Risk, IV.