[Prevention of hemorrhagic cerebral injury in newborn and premature infants subjected to mechanical ventilation].
The newborn brain, and even more so the brain of the premature child, can be considered as an authentic target organ for numerous pathological conditions, some of which exist outside the central nervous system (changes involving primarily both respiratory function and cardiocirculatory function with serious repercussions at encephalic level). In the premature, this greater "vulnerability" is related to the reduced or absent capacity for self-regulation of the cerebral blood low (mechanism influenced negatively by hypoxia, hypercapnia and metabolic acidosis conditions) and the important role played by numerous factors in protecting newborns from haemorrhagic damage. Of these the most important are the state of prematurity, the presence of vascular, intravascular and extravascular changes, the effects exerted on cerebral haemodynamics by mechanical ventilation and by certain drugs employed in treatment. In mechanically ventilated newborns and premature, prevention of haemorrhagic damage (periendoventricular) is currently based on the application of clear-cut protocols of intensive and rehabilitative treatment. The following form part of these protocols: low damage ventilation techniques (high frequencies, low PJP, low MAP), curarisation (to avoid fluctuations in cerebral blood flow), neuroprotection (phenobarbital), the use of substances and drugs which, by exploiting different mechanisms, go to reduce the extent of the haemorrhage (vitamin E, indomethacin, ethamosylate, tranexamic acid).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)