Outcome of periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage at 2 years of age in 484 very preterm infants admitted to 6 neonatal intensive care units in The Netherlands.

Of 484 newborn infants with a gestational age of less than 32 weeks and admitted to 6 neonatal intensive care units in the Netherlands, 294 survived and were available for follow-up at the corrected age of two years. The total incidence of impaired neurodevelopmental outcome was 23.1%. Sixty-nine children had a periventricular-intraventricular hemorrhage (PIVH) in the neonatal period: 31 grade I, 21 grade II, 12 grade III, 5 grade IV. Children with grade I and II PIVH had significantly more handicaps than children without PIVH (36.5% vs 17.8%, p less than 0.01). This held even true after the data were adjusted for possible confounding factors (odds ratio [OR] 2.1, confidence interval [1.3, 3.3], p less than 0.01). Children with grade III and IV PIVH had also more handicaps than children without PIVH (52.9% vs 17.8%, p less than 0.001); after adjustment for confounding factors the OR was 3.0, confidence interval [1.6, 5.5], p less than 0.01. The difference between children with grade I and II PIVH and children with grade III and IV PIVH was not significant.