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Neonatal Hypotonia

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Emerging Topics and Controversies in Neonatology

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Abstract

Neonatal hypotonia is a key clinical presentation in neonatal medicine. Identifying an underlying diagnosis can be a challenge because of a wide differential diagnosis. However, a systematic approach—taking a history, performing both a general and neurological examination—can point the way to the correct diagnosis or at least to the investigations that are required.

This chapter will focus in on those disorders that present in the neonatal period. The classification of underlying causes will be presented in relation to the anatomical location of the deficit. Summaries of the more common conditions will be given including mechanisms of inheritance. This partly reflects the increasing role of genetics in diagnosis of the floppy infant and neurological disorders in general. Brief case presentations will be used to illustrate the relationship between clinical findings and diagnosis.

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  1. University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK

    Robin Miralles & Deepa Panjwani

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  1. Robin Miralles
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  2. Deepa Panjwani
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Correspondence to Robin Miralles .

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  1. Department of Health Sciences, George Davies Centre for Medicine, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Elaine M. Boyle

  2. Department of Health Sciences, George Davies Centre for Medicine, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Jonathan Cusack

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Miralles, R., Panjwani, D. (2020). Neonatal Hypotonia. In: Boyle, E., Cusack, J. (eds) Emerging Topics and Controversies in Neonatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28829-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28829-7_5

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