Neonatal hypoglycemia and brain damage

Hypoglycemia is a common metabolic disorder of neonates.It is also one of the controversial issues among neonatologists.The focuses of controversy include the definition of hypoglycemia,associated brain damage,the threshold value of treatment,and long-term prognosis.These issues have led to improvements in obstetric and neonatal care.However,Brain damage caused by hypoglycemia is still occurred frequently.Although the tolerance to hypoglycemia in premature brain is better than in mature brain,the risk of brain damage is increased when hypoglycemia is persistent or recurrent,and or accompanied by other risk events such as hypoxia-ischemia convulsions.,Serious and persistent hypoglycemia can damage not only the neurons in the cerebral cortex,but also the glial cells in the subcortical white matter,particularly in occipitoparietal the region.The common neurological sequelae include cerebral palsy,mental retardation,visual disturbance,convulsions and microcephaly.Thus,although the value of blood glucose for diagnostic criteria for neonatal hypoglycemia is less than 2.2 mmol / L(40 mg/dL),the thresholds of blood glucose for prevention is defined as 2.6 mmol / L(45 ~ 50 mg/dL).