Incidence, severity, and timing of subependymal and intraventricular hemorrhages in preterm infants born in a perinatal unit as detected by serial real-time ultrasound.

Real-time ultrasound scans were performed on 66 low-birth-weight infants within the first six hours of life (mean, two hours), and then at 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours, and thereafter at weekly intervals. All of the infants were born in a perinatal unit. The incidence of intraventricular hemorrhage and subependymal hemorrhage was 31%. Eight of 20 infants had small hemorrhages (Papile, grades I and II); seven infants sustained grade III hemorrhages, and five infants sustained grade IV hemorrhages. All hemorrhages occurred in the first 72 hours of life; 25% were diagnosed with the first scan (ie, within the first six hours of life). The infants especially at risk were those less than 29 weeks' gestation. Five infants developed progressive posthemorrhagic ventriculomegaly that subsided spontaneously by age 8 weeks. The mortality in the study group was only 4.5%.