Mechanisms of injury to white matter adjacent to a large intraventricular hemorrhage in the preterm brain.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the hyperechoic lesion seen adjacent to a lateral ventricle that contains blood but is not distended. The literature on ependymal barrier dysfunction was reviewed in search of mechanisms of injury to the white matter adjacent to an intraventricular hemorrhage. The clinical literature on the clinical diagnosis of periventricular hemorrhagic infarction was also reviewed to find out how frequently this diagnosis was made. Support was found for the possibility that the ventricular wall does not always function as an efficient barrier, allowing ventricular contents to gain access to the white matter where they cause damage. Hemorrhagic infarction may not be the only or the most frequent mechanism of white matter damage adjacent to a large intraventricular hemorrhage.