Perinatal haemorrhagic necrosis of the adrenal gland. A clinical and radiological evaluation of 24 consecutive cases.

Up to 1970 only13 fully verified and successfully treated cases of neonatal adrenal haemorrhage were on record. As uniform diagnostic and therapeutic guiding principles are still lacking, our experience of 24 consecutive cases appears worth presentation.--The most frequent clinical signs were a palpable mass in 21 cases, jaundice in 14 patients and urinary infection or sepsis in 10 neonates.--Intravenous urography revealed the diagnosis with a reasonable degree of reliability in all our cases. No additional information of significance was obtained at aortography, employed in 2 of our cases.--Surgical exploration with drainage of the haematoma or adrenalectomy was performed in 18 cases, 6 were treated conservatively.--Recovery was uneventful in all but for one conservatively treated patient. In this case death was caused by a second profuse bleeding, which proved fatal in spite of all life saving efforts.