The Incidence and Grading of Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH) in Premature Babies

In order to find out the incidence and severity of intraventricular hemorrhage (lVH) in premature babies in Iran which probably has not been evaluated and reported so far and compare it with reports of other countries, a prospetive study was done over a two year period. All premature babies at or before 34 weeks gestation which were admitted in the newborn nursery of Ali Asghar Children Hospital were evaluated for IVH. Intraventricular hemorrhage was diagnosed by cranial sonography and autopsy. From 84 premature babies, 28 of them (33%) had IVH. In babies with birth weight of under 1000 grams 50%, in 1000-1500 grams 41% and in over 1500 grams 22% had IVH.ln babies under 29 weeks gestation the incidence of IVH was 56% and between 30-34 weeks 22% had IVH.
40% of babies with IVH had sever (grade 3 & 4), 40% had moderate (grade 2) and 20% had mild (grade 1) IVH.
The incidence and severity of IVH in our newborns are almost the same as developed countries.