Congenital malformations prevalent among Egyptian children and associated risk factors

According to the World Health Organization the term congenital anomaly includes any morphological, functional, biochemical or molecular defects that may develop in the embryo and fetus from conception until birth, present at birth, whether detected at that time or not. Based on World Health Organization report, about 3 million fetuses and infants are born each year with major malformations. Several large population based studies place the incidence of major malformations at about 2–3% of all live births. In this study we tried to assess the frequency and nature of congenital malformations (CMs) among Egyptian infants and children as well as the associated maternal, paternal and neonatal risk factors. Patients (13,543) having CMs were detected among 660,280 child aged 0–18 years attending the Pediatric Hospital Ain Shams University during the period of the study (1995–2009), constituting 20/1000. Males were more affected than females (1.8:1). According to ICD-10 classification of congenital malformations the commonest system involved were, nervous system, followed by chromosomal abnormalities, genital organs, urinary system, musculoskeletal, circulatory system, eye, ear, face, and neck, other congenital anomalies, digestive system, cleft lip and palate, and respiratory anomalies. Among the maternal risk factors detected were multiparity, age of the mother at conception, maternal illness, exposure to pollutants, and intake of the drugs in first months. Consanguineous marriage was detected in 45.8% of patients. Surveys of CMs must be done in every country to provide prevalence, pattern of occurrence, nature, identify causes, and associated risk factors to prevent or reduce the occurrence of CMs.