[On morphology of cerebral lesions in perinatal hypoxia (author's transl)]

From the autopsies of one year 47 brains (10 stillborns, 28 prematures and 9 newborns) were systematically examined for hypoxemic cerebral lesions. In contrast to literature findings in 75% of the cases not only veins but also arteries showed congestions and a cerebral edema due to disturbances of circulation and permeability, predominantly caused by hypoxia. Nearly half of the cases had primary leptomeningeal hemorrhages and hemorrhages in the germinal matrix tissue; stillborns had no hemorrhages in the germinal matrix. Encephalodystrophic foci were found in 17% of the cases examined. 41 of 47 brains showed single nerve cell damage with cytolysis and 8 ones a focal nerve cell decay, especially localized in the brain-stem. They were observed equally frequent in stillborne, newborns and prematures. The polyetiologic cerebral lesions point out that birth trauma does not play the dominating role in the etiology as hitherto supposed. Hypoxia gets an increasing importance. Frequently birth traumatic and hypoxemic cerebral lesions are associated.