Abstract 1509 Poster Session III, Monday, 5/3 (poster 47)

Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is an important cerebral insult that contributes to the increased morbidity of prematurity. The incidence varies in the literature. We studied the incidence of diagnosed IVH by gestational age (GA) and birth weight (BWT) in a Canadian multicenter study of 19,510 babies comprising all admission to 17 NICUs from Jan. 1996 to Oct. 1997. IVH was defined using Papile's criteria. The cranial ultrasound, CT scan or MRI with the highest grade in the first 2 weeks of life was used to define IVH category. Neuroimaging was performed according to each institution's protocol or attending physician and was read by the local radiologists.

Results (expressed as %) (Table) Of those with no imaging 79.4% either died or were discharged within 14 days.

Table 1 No caption available
Full size table

Conclusions: Though the incidence of diagnosed IVH is greatest in the most premature, 15% (233/1483) of IVH cases were 35 weeks GA or greater despite the less frequent use of imaging in these more mature babies. Likewise, IVH was more common in the lower birth weight categories, but 20% (294/1476) of IVH cases weighted 2000g or more at birth.