Intraventricular haemorrhage in very preterm neonates

Background: The objective of the current study was to evaluate the incidence of intraventricular haemorrhage and its associated risk factors in preterm neonates.Methods: This cohort study done at Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary care hospital in south India enrolled 104 preterm neonates with either gestational age <32weeks and/or birth weight <1500 grams at birth. These babies were serially screened for intraventricular haemorrhage by doing a neurosonogram on day3 and day 14 of life.Results: Incidence of IVH was found to be 18.2%. Amongst these cases 52.6% babies had Grade I, 36.8% babies had Grade II and 10.6% babies had Grade III intraventricular hemorrhage with ventriculomegaly, as per Papile grading system. It was seen that hypotension needing use of inotropes and neonatal sepsis were significantly associated with IVH.Conclusions: The incidence of IVH in babies born with gestational age <32weeks and/or birth weight <1500 grams was 18.2% in our study. Neonatal sepsis and hypotension requiring use of inotropes were found to be the significant risk factors in this population.