[Anatomical study of the kidneys of newborn infants dying after a septic state]

Over a 6 years period, 51 autopsies have been performed in infants dead after severe sepsis. One third of them had renal damages, consisting mainly in haemorrhagic infiltration. Pathological and clinical data are not always well correlated, but some parameters may enhance a poorer renal prognosis, such as the duration of shock and anuria, or exchange transfusion. The clinical presentation of the infection and the encountered germs are the same in both groups, with or without renal damage. A better management of intensive haemodynamic cares in these neonates increases their survival rate and raises the problem of chronic renal failure or hypertension in this situation. It seems very useful to state precisely the surveillance and protection of the renal function in such patients.