The outcome in a population-based series of 61 Swedish preterm infants born in 1967-82
with infantile hydrocephalus (IH) was investigated. Sixteen (26 %) died before the
age of two years. The available information was updated when the 45 surviving children
were at least four years and six months old. A structured follow-up examination was
performed in the 13 children who had passed the age of six years. Among the 45 survivors,
47% had cerebral palsy, 51 % mental retardation and 33% epilepsy. The overall outcome
for preterm infants with IH was found to be poorer than that for fullterm ones. Prognostic
factors correlating to a poor outcome were an obvious origin of IH (pre- or perinatal)
and a gestational age of less than 28 weeks. It is concluded that handicapped IH children
born very or extremely prematurely constitute a new, and to a large extent severely
braindamaged group that has entered the Swedish IH panorama since the end of the 1970s.
Infantile hydrocephalus - Outcome - Preterm Infants
