Vitamin K given intramuscularly will prevent largely hemorrhagic disea
se in the newborn infant. Results with oral vitamin K prophylaxis, cur
rently used in some countries following the association found in a sin
gle report between childhood cancer and intramuscular vitamin K, are f
ar more controversial. Any role of vitamin K in the prevention of Intr
aventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in premature infants has not been demons
trated sufficiently. Ongoing developments in this field will lead to i
mproved methods of detecting early vitamin K deficiency and perhaps su
itable alternatives to intramuscular vitamin K prophylaxis in the newb
orn.