Introduction CH is an increasingly diagnosticated problem in VLBW, reaching up till 19% among the ELBW due to improved neuroimaging techniques and increased VLBW survivors. The impact of CH on long-term neurodevolopmental outcome is still not well known.

Aim To evaluate the consequences of CH on neurocognitive outcome in VLBW.

Methods CH and other brain lesions were identified by MRI performed at TEA. The neurological development quotient (DQ) of 9 ELBW infants with CH, without white matter (WM) lesions (median GA- 25wks, range 23–27; birth weight -BW- 710 g, 425–980), was compared with the DQ of others two groups: 43 control VLBW infants without lesions (GA 27.7 wks, 23–33; BW 780 g, 430–1000) and 8 VLBW babies with WM major abnormalities (GA 28.7 wks, 26–32; BW 725 g, 430–970). The DQ was evalueted at the age of 3 years with the Griffiths Mental Developmental Scales (GMDS).

Results The 3 groups were comparable for BW (p=0.088), but not for GA (p=0.005). The CH group, compared with controls, showed: a lower not significant DQ score (p 0.07), a significant lower score in the motor areas (locomotor p=0.006, eye and hand-coordination p=0.002, performance p=0.014) and in the personal social skill (p=0.05), not in language (p=0.13) and pratical reasoning (p=0–38). When compared to the WM lesions group not significant difference was found in the DQ and the other areas.

Conclusions Our data showed that CH plays an important role mainly in the motor and behavioral dysfunctions at long-term outcome in VLBW infants.