Neonatal cerebral infarction: USS or CT for imaging?

ABSTRACT

Neonatal cerebral infarction or neonatal stroke is the second most common cause of neonatal seizures in term new born babies. It remains one of the least recognised entities in the neonatal text books and the awareness of its existence among general practitioners and practising paediatricians is very low. Cranial Ultrasound Scan (USS) is the standard imaging used by neonatologists and many neonatal intensive care units have their own scanners. However, USS may give a false sense of security especially in the term neonates and we report a case of neonatal cerebral infarction here and the need for computerised tomography (CT) for imaging.