Hyaline-membrane disease, alkaline buffer treatment, and cerebral intraventricular halphaemorrhage.

In 55 preterm infants dying from hyaline-membrane disease (H.M.D.) in 1971-74, infants with associated cerebral intraventricular haemorrhage (H.M.D./I.V.H.) had been given more intravascular sodium-bicarbonate solution, but the same proportions of cases with H.M.D. and H.M.D./I.V.H. received bicarbonate at the time of birth. Much of the sodium-bicarbonate solution given to H.M.D./I.V.H. infants was injected in response to the clinical effects of I.V.H. Maximum serum-sodium concentrations correlated with sodium-bicarbonate dosage but not I.V.H. The incidence of I.V.H. in preterm infants in 1971-74 was unchanged from 1956-59 when alkaline buffer treatment was not used. These findings do not suggest that sodium-bicarbonate therapy plays a major part in the pathogenesis of I.V.H.