[Neuropathological and morphometrical investigations on the localization of the perinatal hypoxic brain damage (author's transl)].

The localization and extent of nerve cell damage caused by perinatal hypoxia has been examined in 83 cases. In 54% of the cases nerve cell damage was localized in the medulla oblongata, in 40% the thalamus and in one third the substantia grisea centralis was affected by nerve cell necroses. In contrast to the phylogenetically older structures of CNS, nerve cell lesions occurred in our material only in 30% in the cerebral cortex and in 18% of our observation the cerebellar cortex. The results show, that the brain stem is especially vulnerable to perinatal hypoxia, this is at variance with hitherto existing conceptions. In a fourth part of the material, nerve cell damage was found in the medulla spinalis, especially in the columna anterior, After prolonged hypoxia the neuron-glia index in the lamina tecti deviates by 0.0491 from that following peracute anoxia. This caused by loss of nerve cells in the brain stem due to perinatal continuous hypoxia.