[Intraventricular hemorrhage and parenchymatous ischemia in the newborn at term. Report of five cases].

Although intraventricular hemorrhage associated with cerebral ischemia without severe perinatal asphyxia is rare in full-term newborns, it can be severe, have early or late onset depending on the etiology and be of poor prognosis. Five full-term neonates (37 to 41 weeks of gestational age) without criteria of severe perinatal asphyxia were admitted to the intensive care unit for seizures: four were between seven and 11 days of age and one was only 12 h old. Clinical or electroclinical seizures recorded by continuous EEG monitoring were numerous, leading to status epilepticus in three babies. They were unilateral (at the level of the left hemisphere) in one infant and have not been recorded in the fourth case. Past-ictal EEG abnormalities were numerous rolandic or temporal slow or fast sharp waves of variable polarity. Cranial CT scans showed uni- or bilateral intraventricular hemorrhage with dilatation and subcortical or periventricular ischemic lesions with hemorrhage. Four out of the five infants died during the neonatal period.