Plantar Creases Review -Infant

Plantar Surface pertains to the major foot creases on the sole of the foot. The first appearance of a crease appears on the anterior sole at the ball of the foot. this may be related to foot flexion in utero, but is contributed to by dehydration of the skin. Infants of non-white origin have been reported to have fewer foot creases at birth.

Inspect the plantar surface of the foot for creases. Term newborns have creases over the entire plantar surface, while the creases of a preterm newborn range from absent to faint red markings.

How to Examine Plantar Creases of the Infant

Very premature and extremely immature infants have no detectable foot creases. To further help define the gestational age of these infants, measuring the foot length or heel-toe distance is helpful. This is done by placing the infant's foot on a metric tape measure and noting the distance from the back of the heel to the tip of the great toe. For heel-toe distances less than 40 mm, a minus two score (-2) is assigned; for those between 40 and 50 mm, a minus one score (-1) is assigned.