Estimation of gestational age in the neonate: a comparison of clinical methods.

A combined evaluation of almost all the proposed morphologic and neurologic criteria for estimating gestational age in the neonate was performed on 710 newborns of 28 to 44 weeks' gestation. It is concluded that (1) the neurologic criteria used by Dubowitz et al in combination with the external (morphologic) criteria of Farr et al give very accurate results of estimation of the gestational age; (2) equally accurate results can be obtained if those criteria with the lowest correlation coefficients--namely, are and leg recoil, degree of edema, and appearance of the genitalia--are omitted; and (3) the use of only nine external criteria, the assessment of which is easier to perform on sick babies, gives an estimation of gestational age that is accurate for clinical purposes (r=0.878).