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Updated: May 26, 2026
State of the Art Cranial Ultrasound Imaging in Neonates
Published on: February 2, 2015
Pattern of cerebral ultrasound in neonatal heart surgery
L Rosti1, A Giamberti, M Chessa
1Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Heart Surgery, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, Italy. luca.rosti@gmail.com
Aim:
No study described reliably the changes in cerebral ultrasound (CUS) findings in neonatal heart surgery. We tried to define the modifications of CUS before and after heart surgery in neonates.
Patients:
We studied 48 neonates with congenital heart defects were studied. Of these, 33 had correction of the malformation with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB group); 15 underwent coarctation repair/shunting procedures (no-CPB group). Patients had CUS pre-operatively, 48-72 hours after surgery, and at discharge.
Results:
Pre-operative studies did not show significant differences between the groups. In CPB group, preoperatively, 6/33 infants showed echogenicity of basal ganglia and 1/33 grade I IVH. In the early postoperative evaluation, 24/33 infants had abnormal scans: increased echogenicity of basal ganglia in 24 and grade I IVH in 14. At discharge, abnormal scans persisted in 20/33 (basal ganglia echogenicity in 20, grade I IVH in 12). In the no-CPB group, preoperatively, 1/15 infant showed echogenicity of basal ganglia. In the early postoperative evaluation, 6/15 had abnormal scans: increased echogenicity of basal ganglia in 6, grade I IVH in 4. At discharge, abnormal scans persisted in 3/15.
Conclusions:
CUS after neonatal heart surgery shows a definite pattern of increased echogenicity of the basal ganglia, more consistent after CPB. These changes may reflect disturbances of deep grey matter, and last 10-15 days at least.
