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Asphyxia can cause neurologic damage in the fetus, hot there are few data relating severity or duration of asphyxia to the degree of cerebral damage. We report cerebral histologic and electrophysiologic changes after asphyxia in chronically instrumented late-gestation fetal sheep. We reduced uterine blood flow to produce an ascending aortic blood oxygen content< 1.5 mM for either 30 or 60 min (n= 13). In a subsequent protocol (n= 6), if full occlusion of the common uterine artery for 15 min did not reduce the EEC voltage to less than 20% of baseline, supplementary maternal hypoxia was added for a maximum of 120 min. Histologic outcome was assessed 3 d postinsnlt. Uterine artery occlusion resulted in severe hy-poxemia, hypercarbia, acidosis, and an initial hypertension and bradycardia. Eight of 14 surviving fetuses showed neuronal damage, with greatest loss in the parasagHtal cortex, striatum, and the CA1 …