[Diagnosis and outcome of cerebral distress in newborn infants who presented signs of fetal hypoxia. Prospective study].

The prospective study covered 60 full-term newborns, who presented exclusively signs of acute fetal distress. It had two major aims: --the analysis of the clinical and EEG symptomatologies, allowing the assessment of the cerebral damage in the neonatal period; --the evaluation as to whether the post-asphyxia cerebral damage may remain undiagnosed in the neonatal period, sequellae revealing it secondarily. Clinical and EEG supervision was undertaken during the first week; it was continued till 3 years of age in 45 of the 56 survivors. During the first week of life, 50 infants had at least once, an abnormal neurologic manifestation. The signs for a poor outcome are "unexpected" fetal distress, Apgar score below 2 at 1 min., seizures occurring or persisting after 48 hours, severe clinical and/or EEG changes occurring more than once. Prognosis is considered as favorable if EEG or clinical examination are consistently normal, or if EEG and clinical examination are normalized at 6 days of life.