Evaluation of Neonatal Periventricular-Intraventricular Hemorrhage

Periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage is the most common and serious variety of neonatal intracranial hemorrhage.1The other major types of hemorrhage, ie, subdural hemorrhage, primary subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intracerebellar hemorrhage, are either very uncommon or not of major clinical importance. The enormous importance of periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage is linked to the evolution of neonatal intensive care and, as a consequence, the dramatic improvements in survival rates for small pre-mature infants. Because periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage is characteristic of such infants, the occurrence of the lesion has reached nearly epidemic proportions in modern neonatal intensive care facilities. The adaptation of the computerized tomographic (CT) scan to the evaluation of the small premature infant in the mid-1970s led to the recognition of the remarkably high incidence of the lesion. Thus, in two large studies in which small premature infants were subjected to CT scan routinely in the first week of life, the incidence of periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage