Hyponatraemia as a consequence of serial liquor punctures in preterm infants with a ventricular access device after posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus
- K Tenbrock1,
- A Kribs1,
- B Roth1,
- B Speder2
- 1Department of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care, University Children’s Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- 2Neurosurgical Department, University Hospital of Cologne
- Correspondence to:
Dr Tenbrock, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, MCR, Washington DC 20307-5100, USA;
klaus.tenbrock{at}na.amedd.army.mil
We observed hyponatraemia in several preterm children treated with a ventricular access device (Rickham reservoir)1 after intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH)2 and serial liquor puncture to drain liquor. To rule out a connection, we retrospectively investigated the data of all preterm children (23–32 weeks of gestational age) treated at the University Children’s Hospital of Cologne with a ventricular access device during 1996–1999 (n = 16).
Sixteen of 480 preterm infants …
