Prematurity, infections are most likely causes of neurologic injury in infants.

2003 JUL 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The most likely causes of brain damage among low birthweight infants are prematurity and infections, not oxygen starvation, a Johns Hopkins study has found.

Studying 213 babies born weighing less than 3 pounds, 5 ounces, the researchers noted that the smaller the infants were at birth and the less time they spent in the womb, the more likely they were to have some form of brain damage. Babies born with infections were more likely than those without infections to have brain complications.

The report was published in the June 2003 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology (Prematurity and neonatal infection are most predictive of neurologic morbidity in very low birthweight infants. Obstet Gynecol, June 2003;101(6):1249-1254).

"A lot of medical malpractice cases try to relate brain damage to oxygen deficiency during the birthing process," says lead author Cynthia J. Holcroft, MD, an instructor of gynecology and obstetrics. "In our study, oxygen deficiency played a very small role in the neurologic injuries seen in these infants. Even with the increase in the cesarean section rate from 5% to almost 25%, and the widespread introduction of electronic fetal heart rate monitoring, the incidence of cerebral palsy and other problems has remained unchanged over the past 40 years."

Researchers ...