Periventricular Venous Infarction in an Extremely Premature Infant as the Cause of Schizencephaly

Schizencephaly is a disorder of neuronal migration which has been hypothesized to arise from vascular ischemic lesion during the early phase of neuroembryogenesis. We describe a case of a premature boy born at 23 weeks of gestation with neonatal stroke. On the first day of life cranial ultrasonography detected a grade II intraventricular hemorrhage and on day 12 periventricular venous infarction. At the postconceptional age of 40 weeks, magnetic resonance imaging revealed a gray matter–lined cleft, suggesting schizencephaly. We have evidence of the pathogenesis of schizencephaly following vascular ischemic stroke early in neurodevelopment before neuronal migration is completed.