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Perinatal encephalopathy
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Perinatal encephalopathy is a pathology that develops in a fetus or a newborn due to insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain, is one of the most common lesions of the neonatal nervous system. Depending on how long the process of oxygen starvation was, the brain can develop local edema up to necrosis.
The consequences of this disease can manifest itself as a violation of brain activity, hydrocephalic syndrome, vegetative-vascular dystonia.
The perinatal period is divided into antenatal (begins on the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy and ends with the process of birth), intranatal (ancestral process), early neonatal (the first seven days after birth).
[What causes perinatal encephalopathy?
Factors provoking perinatal encephalopathy:
- The woman's age is less than twenty and more than thirty-five years;
- Pregnancy, accompanied by pathologies of various types - infectious diseases, the effect of toxins, diabetes mellitus;
- Admission during pregnancy of drugs that are a threat to the development of the fetus;
- Early placental abruption;
- Births that started much earlier than expected, or, conversely, did not come on time;
- Factors that adversely affect the birth process: too narrow a pelvis, early discharge of amniotic fluid, an embryo neck cord, a long or, on the contrary, a rapid birth process;
- Traumatization during the birth process;
- Multiparty.
Symptoms of perinatal encephalopathy
The initial manifestation of this pathology may be a belated or too weak and painful crying of the baby at birth. The child lacks a sucking reflex, sleep, palpitations, and motor activity are disturbed. If after a few days these symptoms do not disappear, they may be associated with a violation of muscle tone, delay in development, dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract, manifested as a dysbiosis, insufficient weight gain, poor digestibility of nutrition.
Since in the first weeks after childbirth the baby forms the basis of neuropsychological development, careful monitoring of the infant's behavioral reactions is required. Disturbing symptoms may include anxiety, weakness and lethargy, involuntary flinching, constant or frequent regurgitation as a result of eating, dilating the pupils, anxious reaction to extraneous sounds and light, tilting the head during crying.
How is perinatal encephalopathy recognized?
The detection of this pathology is based on an analysis of all available information regarding the course of pregnancy, childbirth, the baby's health immediately after birth, and includes an examination by a neurologist and oculist. For more accurate diagnosis of the disease, the following methods are used:
- Neurosonography - definition of anatomical features of the brain through the fontanel;
- dopplerography - a method used to determine the level of blood supply to the brain or neck, as well as areas in which the vessels are narrowed or clogged;
- computer tomography - study of changes in brain tissues that were not sufficiently identified with other methods of examination;
- electroencephalography - this method allows you to identify potential areas of epileptic activity.
The condition of the baby is assessed by such criteria as checking reflexes, muscle tone, skin color, breathing and palpitations.
How is perinatal encephalopathy treated?
As a treatment, drugs are used to improve the blood circulation of the brain (for example, actovegin), and also prescribe symptomatic therapy - anticonvulsant and diuretics, vitamin therapy, therapeutic massage courses, as well as homeopathic and phytopreparations. During the rehabilitation period, the child must be under the supervision and supervision of a child neurologist.
Prevention of such pathology as perinatal encephalopathy consists in managing the future mother of a healthy lifestyle, the use of beneficial natural products, the complete abandonment of nicotine and alcohol, the timely treatment of toxicosis, as well as in the competent guidance and assistance of the obstetrician-gynecologist in the process of childbirth.