Abstract:
Background and Aim: Congenital diaphragmatic herniae (CDH) have a high incidence rate on the Maltese islands, but little is known about their associations and maternal risk factors. A nationwide study in a country where abortion is still illegal, allowing more data to be used, has been conducted to shed light on some possible risk factors of the development of a congenital diaphragmatic hernia.
Materials and Methods: The study is a population based retrospective analysis including CDH cases from 1993 until 2016, which was gathered from the Directorate of Health information and Research Malta Chi- squared analysis and risk ratio was used to examine associations between cases and controls.
Results: 55 cases were reported between 1993-2016. The cases make up 0.0644 percent of the total births during that period. Advanced maternal age was more likely in CDH cases (p=0.01). 18.2 percent of CHD cases were born at 1500-2499 grams compared to only 6.2 percent of controls with a significance of <0.001. No significance was found relating to infant gender (54.5% vs 50.9% p=0.404) and none in relation to plural births (3.6% vs 1.3% p=0.333).
Conclusions: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia was found to be associated with advanced maternal age and low birthweights. It was also confirmed having a congenital diaphragmatic hernia increases your chances of having further congenital anomalies.
What will audience learn from your presentation?
- Diaphragmatic hernias are still a common anomaly faced in NPICU. This study highlights the risk factors associated with diaphragmatic hernias allowing clinicians to preempt and be more cautious about a possible anomaly.
- It is the only national research of its type in a country where abortion is illegal meaning no cases are lost, giving more reliable results.
- More research needs to be carried out in causation and risk factors of diaphragmatic hernias, a study like this could open the doors to that.
