Developmental Outcome of Very Low Birth Weight Infants Requiring a Ventriculo-Peritoneal Shunt

Abstract

All infants of < 1,500 g birth weight who required a ventriculo-peritoneal shunt were followed for developmental problems over the 1st year of life. There were 19 infants; 2 died within the 1st postoperative week. At 1 year of age corrected for prematurity the mean Bayley Mental Developmental Index was 62 ± 23.0, and the mean Psychomotor Developmental Index was 61 ± 19. Only 2 infants attained scores > 85 on both scales, while an additional 2 infants attained a score of > 85 on one scale. It is concluded that ventriculo-peritoneal shunting procedures performed after progressive ventricular enlargement has taken place are not likely to result in normal development of the infant < 1,500 g birth weight.

External Ventricular Drainage for Initial Treatment of Neonatal Posthemorrhagic Hydrocephalus: Surgical and Neurodevelopmental Outcome

“…A strong correlation be tween the severity of neurodevelopmental handicaps and the severity of ICH is consistently found [4,5,17,[41][42][43][44][45]. A similar correlation was found in our patients.…”

Ventriculosubgaleal Shunts: Management of Posthemorrhagic Hydrocephalus in Premature Infants

“…8], Although formal ncuropsychologic testing was not done in the present study, at least 27% of the original 62 patients were felt to be normal in follow-up: 11 children were lost to follow-up in this regard. These results com pare favorably to those of the VP shunted prematures [7,8], although all of these series are too small to make meaningful comparison.…”

Cognitive disorders in children's hydrocephalus

“…Intraventricular hemorrhages as a consequence of premature birth and low birth weight are the most frequent perinatal causes of hydrocephalus. Majority of researchers believe that hemorrhages of this type occur in about 40% newborn babies with the birth weight below 1500 g, and in many cases the brain ventricles experience a post-hemorrhagic extension [9]. The hemorrhage leads to destruction of the brain structures and can result in the formation of porencephalic cysts with the accompanying neurological deficits which depend mainly on the hemorrhage and cysts location and size [2].…”