Periventricular leukomalacia complex.

At autopsy in the past three years, a new complex of CNS lesions has appeared in 54% (50/93) of the brains of premature infant cadavers that have come from our neonatal intensive care unit. This complex consists of necrotizing lesions in the periventricular white matter and in the gray nuclei of the cerebral hemispheres, the hippocampus and subiculum, cerebellar folia and white matter, and basis pontis. This entity is called the periventricular leukomalacia complex, since the distribution of lesions is similar, yet much more severe, than that described by Banker and Larroche in 1962. Clinical studies have indicated that these lesions may be related to long periods of time at high blood oxygen or prolonged periods in which PO2 and pH fluctuated widely.