Development of current problems regarding perinatal CNS lesions from a neuropathologic viewpoint

Perinatal central-nervous-system lesions may be found in as many as one third of all subjects who died before, during, or after the time of birth. Today, hypoxia is considered to be an essential cause of such lesions; in contrast to views held previously, birth trauma, i.e., physical injury to an infant during its delivery, is of minor pathogenetic importance. Neurohistological studies showed that it is especially prolonged hypoxia - in addition to cerebral hemorrhage, damage to the cerebral parenchyma and medullary substance - which can cause lesion of the brain stem. A relatively frequent occurrence are isolated ischemic cerebrospinal nerve cell lesions. Their prognostic dignity in regard to the possible formation of synapses and the problem of damage to the neuroglia are as yet imperfectly understood.