Fetal-Neonatal Neurology Program | Conditions We Treat

In our Fetal-Neonatal Neurology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, we provide comprehensive care for babies who experienced a brain injury or have a congenital neurological condition.

We care for children with a variety of conditions, including:

Conditions acquired in utero (before a child is born) — also called congenital (present at birth) conditions.

Brain malformations:

• holoprosencephaly
• schizencephaly
• lissencephaly
• pachygyria
• polymicrogyria
• periventricular nodular heterotopia
• other migrational disorders
• focal cortical dysplasias
• Chiari malformations, types I and II (spina bifida)
• agenesis or dysgenesis of the corpus callosum
• Dandy-Walker malformation and other malformations of the posterior fossa
• congenital hydrocephalus, e.g., due to aqueductal stenosis

Congenital infections:

• congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection
• congenital toxoplasmosis
• congenital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection
• congenital rubella syndrome
• other congenital infections, such as:
  • syphilis
  • varicella syndrome (chickenpox)
  • mumps
  • fifth disease (parvovirus B19)
  • HIV
• hydrocephalus, ventriculomegaly
• intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH)

Conditions acquired by newborns and young infants:

• hypoxic-ischemic brain injury
• newborn seizures
• newborn stroke
• hyperbilirubinemia affecting the brain
• hemorrhage (bleeding) in the brain
• germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH), intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH)
• hydrocephalus, including posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus, benign external hydrocephalus
• meningitis
• encephalitis
• periventricular leukomalacia or white matter injury
• brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy)
• neurological follow-up of children who receive ECMO

Neurological symptoms or signs in newborns or young infants:

• seizures
• microcephaly
• macrocephaly
• plagiocephaly
• torticollis
• spasticity, hypertonia
• dystonia
• hypotonia
• quadriparesis, hemiparesis, diparesis
• visual problems, abnormal eye movements