Cerebral, renal and splenic lesions due to fetal anoxia and their relationship to malformations.

Two newborn infants who suffered severe intra-uterine anoxia a few weeks before birth are described. Both died shortly after being born spontaneously and slightly prematurely. In one case the mother had attempted suicide by inhaling butane. The infant's kidneys were hypoplastic and resembled those seen in renal dysplasia, and the brain showed a severe encephalomalacia which would probably have developed into hydranencephaly. The other case was a twin who survived the intra-uterine death of her co-twin: she had hypoplastic kidneys similar to those in the first case, and a hypoplastic spleen. (The brain was not examined.) It is thought that intra-uterine anoxia may produce lesions in fetal organs which appear at birth as congenital developmental malformations. This mechanism is thought to account in particular for some cases of renal dysplasia and for hydranencephaly.