Objective Assessment and Quantification of Skin Color and Melanin in Neonates and Infants: A State-Of-The-Art Review.

Neonatal skin color, especially melanin assessment, remains an underexplored topic in neonatology and dermatology literature. Growing concerns about racial bias in pulse oximeters in adults highlight the need for objective assessment of skin color to investigate if skin pigmentation contributes to the inaccuracy. While skin color scales and cutaneous colorimetric devices have been utilized in adult dermatology for various applications, their use and effectiveness in neonates and infants are not well understood.