Cerebral infarcts in newborns and infants with cyanotic cardiac anomalies.

Neuropathological examination of six brains of newborns and infants who died in the course of congenital cyanotic cardiac anomalies showed focal brain lesions. The material included five cases from two weeks to two months of age, and one two-year-old infant. In two of them, the periventricular ischemic infarcts were found, in one multifocal encephalomalacia due to multiple vascular occlusions, and in three the necrotic foci corresponded to the supply of large cerebral arteries. The character and topography of severe brain lesions, particularly within the hemispheric white matter, were clearly influenced by the immaturity of the cerebral structures.