Significance of subependymal cysts in newborns with perinatal pathology

Abstract

We have studied the evolution of transfontanelar sonography of 106 newborns with perinatal risk. We have selected 21 newborns (9 terms and 12 preterms) who presented subependymal cysts in the ultrasound study. Their gestational and perinatal factors, their clinical data, others central nervous system lesions, and their developmental patterns during the first year of life were analyzed. The most relevant results were: the great incidence of subependymal cysts in preterm infants; the close relation with the perinatal pathology, other findings of hypoxic-ischemic encephalophaty coincidental with the cysts, and the association of neonatal seizures in term newborns with subependymal cysts. The cysts appears in germinal matrix some weeks after the central nervous system injury (ischemic or hemorrhagic injury). Their exact location on anterior-posterior axis (Caput Nuclei Caudate, choroid plexus) will depend on the gestational age of the newborn. The subependymal cyst doesn’t affect the prognosis of theese infants. Their neurologic development depends on others lesions of central nervous system.