Selective versus Universal Screening for Neonatal Hypoglycaemia in a Level II Nursery
Department of Neonatology, Children's Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Corresponding Author: Dutta N, Doctus Journal of Paediatrics.
Abstract
Screening every newborn for hypoglycaemia generates a large number of heel-pricks for a small yield. We compared a risk-factor-based selective protocol against universal screening across 1,180 consecutive births in a level II nursery. Selective screening reduced blood sampling by 62% while detecting 94% of the episodes that required intervention. The six missed episodes all occurred in infants who became symptomatic and were captured by clinical observation within four hours. Restricting biochemical screening to infants with a defined risk factor, backed by structured clinical observation of the remainder, is safe at this level of care and substantially reduces painful procedures.
Keywords
Neonatal Hypoglycaemia; Screening; Risk Factors; Newborn Care; Heel-Prick; Level II Nursery
How to Cite
Dutta N and Banerjee P. “Selective versus Universal Screening for Neonatal Hypoglycaemia in a Level II Nursery”. Doctus Journal of Paediatrics 2.5 (2026): 33-44.
Copyright and Licence
© 2026 Dutta N. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.