Congenital anomalies in paediatric surgery in North India

Abstract

Background: Congenitalmal formation represents defects in morphogenesis during early foetal life. Congenital anomalies account for 8-15% of perinatal deaths and 13-16% of neonatal deaths in India. The proportion of perinatal deaths due to congenital malformations is  increasing as a result of reduction of mortality due to other causes owing to the improvement in perinatal and neonatal care.

Materials and Methods: A retrospective record based study was conducted
in the Paediatric Surgery Department of a Tertiary Care Institute of North India. The records of over a decade (2003-2012) were analysed. A total of 4305 cases of congenital anomalies were recorded in the study. All the data were entered in the excel spread sheet and analysed in SPSS version 17. (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, a software package used for statistical analysis, officially named “IBM SPSS Statistics”).

Results:Over the decade, a total of 14264 children were admitted in the paediatric surgery department with various problems. Out of these about one-third children (30.18%) had one or other type of congenital  anomalies. This trend remained almost constant over the decade within a range of 26.8-33.6%. About half of the total congenital anomalies  belonged to the gastro-intestinal tract, followed by genitourinary tract, central nervous system and other anomalies. All the anomalies were more common in males and were found in children belonging to rural  communities.

Conclusions: All the neonates should be examined with scrutiny for overt as well as occult congenital anomalies and Paediatric surgical care should be considered as an essential component of child  health programmes in developing populations. Moreover, it is necessary to establish a registry system for congenital anomalies.

Key words: Congenital, paediatric surgery, malformations