Incidence of intracranial bruits in neonates

Although standard texts state that intracranial bruits are common in childhood, experience suggests they are uncommon in neonates. This study investigated the incidence of intracranial bruits in 1,000 consecutive neonates. Only one bruit was heard, which was due to a transmitted cardiac murmur. Uncommon physical findings require caution in deciding whether to immediately consider it a benign finding, or to pursue additional evaluation with noninvasive imaging. We suggest that listening for intracranial bruits in neonates may be an important addition to the standard neonatal screening examination. Further study to determine if pathologic bruits can be detected in the presymptomatic state is needed.