[Prognosis after perinatal asphyxia in full-term infants. A literature review].

Reviewing the literature published during the last 30 years we found comparable systematic studies of outcome for 1042 term infants born alive after likely intrapartum hypoxia-ischaemia. Fifty-two percent had no sequelae, 8% had developmental delay without associated handicaps, 4% had a single handicap, 11% were multihandicapped and 14% were dead as a consequence of the intrapartum hypoxia-ischaemia. The frequency of single handicaps exceeded the frequency found among the controls and in population studies. The frequency of children with developmental delay did not differ from that found among the controls. Outcome is closely related to the severity of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy in the newborn.