Development of very low birth weight infants: a regional study of 371 survivors.

We re-examined 371 infants with birth weights less than 1501 g at a corrected age of 18-20 months. This sample amounted to 91% of such infants admitted to one of the six neonatal intensive care units in Hamburg between July 1983 and 1986. The neurological examination and a developmental evaluation using the Griffith Developmental Scale revealed higher rates of abnormalities than in most other studies. Fifty-five children (14.8%) suffered from cerebral palsy, classified in 45 as spastic diplegia, in 5 as spastic tetraplegia, in 1 as spastic hemiplegia and in 4 as dystonia. Of the children, 41 (11%) showed minor neurological deviations (hyperactivity, clumsiness, intention tremor). The development of 30 children (8%) without neurological abnormalities was moderately retarded (DQ 80-89, corrected for gestational age [GA]). Nineteen children (5%) were severely retarded (DQ less than 80, corrected for GA) and four children (1.5%) were blind due to retrolental fibroplasia. An isolated delay of speech development was found in 5 children. Seventy children (18.9%) had a major and 87 children (23.5%) a minor handicap.