Complications of intracranial hemorrhage in premature infants. Ultrasound follow-up two to fifteen months after birth.

Abstract

One hundred prematurely born infants were evaluated 2 to 15 months after birth with real-time ultrasound. Seventy of these had intracranial bleeding as demonstrated by ultrasound examination during the first days of life. Nine of 13 (69%) infants with single or multiple sites of hemorrhage but without intraventricular hemorrhage had normal ultrasound at the late follow-up, 3/13 (23%) had mild and only one (8%) severe ventricular dilatation. Fifteen of 57 (26%) infants with intraventricular hemorrhage had normal ventricles at follow-up ultrasound, 26/57 (46%) mild and 16/57 (28%) moderate or severe ventriculomegaly. Only 2 infants were shunted. Porencephalic cysts developed in 5 infants. The size of ventricles may either progress or regress after the early posthemorrhagic period. Real-time ultrasound is the modality of choice not only for the diagnosis of intracranial hemorrhage in premature infants but also for late follow-up examinations as long as the size of the fontanelle permits the performance of the examination.