A prospective study of 108 infants born at 34 weeks' gestation or earlier or weighing 1500 g or less was carried out to determine the incidence of
intracranial hemorrhage and the multiple risk factors that may cause or aggravate this
hemorrhage in premature infants. On day 2 post partum, mothers were questioned regarding maternal risk factors, including the use of either
aspirin or
acetaminophen during the last week of pregnancy. Between days 3 and 7 post partum, computed tomographic scanning was performed on the 108 infants. Of the total, 53 (49%) developed
intracranial hemorrhage. The incidence of
hemorrhage in the infants whose mothers had ingested
aspirin was significantly greater (P less than .05) than that seen in infants whose mothers did not take either
aspirin or
acetaminophen (control group). The incidence of
intracranial hemorrhage among infants whose mothers ingested
acetaminophen was not significantly different from that of the control group. This study indicates that
aspirin is associated with an increased incidence of
intracranial hemorrhage in the authors' population. The use of
aspirin in the last 3 months of pregnancy is highly questionable and probably inappropriate.