The role of cortical evoked responses in predicting neuromotor outcome in very preterm infants

To explore the role of posterior tibial somatosensory evoked potentials (SS EP) and flash visual evoked potentials (VEP) in the early prediction of fun ctional brain injury, 93 infants of less than 32 weeks gestation at birth w ere studied. Neuromotor outcome was defined by clinical examination at the age of 2 years. SSEP, VEP and cerebral ultrasound were compared as preditor s of neuromotor outcome. Posterior tibial SSEP were the most accurate singl e method of predicting neuromotor abnormalities with a 83% positive predict ive power for cerebral palsy and a 100% predictive power for abnormal neuro logy, compared to 17% and 40% for cerebral ultrasound and 38% and 85% for V EP respectively. When SSEP and VEP results were concordant, the positive pr edictive power for cerebral palsy and abnormal neurology was 100%. Our resu lts suggest that posterior tibial SSEP and VEP are accurate tools in the pr ediction of outcome in very preterm infants. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Irel and Ltd. All rights reserved.