Perinatal Haemorrhagic Necrosis of the Adrenal Gland

Abstracl. Up tO 1970 only 13 fully verified and sucessfully treated cases of neonatal adrenal haemorrhage were on record. _As uniform diagnostic and therapeutic guiding principles are still lacking, our experience of 24 consecutive cases appears worth presentation. -The most frequent clinical signs were a palpable mass in 21 cases, jaundice in 14 patients and urinary infection or sepsis in l0 neonates. -Intravenous urography revealed the diagnosis with a reasonable degree of reliability in all our cases. No additional information of significance was obtained at aortography, employed in 2 of our cases. -Surgical exploration with drainage of the haematoma or adrenalectomy was performed in 18 cases, 6 were treated conservatively. -Recovery was uneventful in all but for one conservatively treated patient. In this case death was caused by a second profuse bleeding, which proved fatal in spite of all life saving efforts.