1 Dept of Paediatrics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa
2 Dept of Paediatrics, University of Witwatersrand Medical School, Parktown 2193, South Africa
To the Editor.
The recent study by Drs Perlman and Thach1 casts important light on an earlier work by Drs Perlman et al.2,3 Initially, Perlman et al2 showed that the risk of intraventricular hemorrhage in infants with the respiratory distress syndrome correlated with fluctuations in arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow. In their second study,3 they found the corollary: muscle paralysis eliminated the pressure and flow fluctuations and markedly reduced the risk of intraventricular hemorrhage.