Drainage, irrigation and fibrinolytic therapy (DRIFT) for posthaemorrhagic ventricular dilatation: 10-year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Progressive ventricular dilatation after intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) in preterm infants has a very high risk of severe disability and death. Drainage, irrigation and fibrinolytic therapy (DRIFT), in a randomised controlled trial (RCT), reduced severe cognitive impairment at 2 years.

Objective: To assess if the cognitive advantage of DRIFT seen at 2 years persisted until school age.

Protecting the premature brain: current evidence-based strategies for minimising perinatal brain injury in preterm infants.

Improving neurodevelopmental outcome for preterm infants is an important challenge for neonatal medicine. The disruption of normal brain growth and neurological development is a significant consequence of preterm birth and can result in physical and cognitive impairments. While advances in neonatal medicine have led to progressively better survival rates for preterm infants, there has only been a modest improvement in the proportion of surviving infants without neurological impairment, and no change in the proportion with severe disability.