Background & objectives: Congenital anomalies lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Systematically published data on the prevalence and spectrum of congenital anomalies from India are scarce. This study was aimed to ascertain the prevalence, spectrum, trend, and outcome of congenital anomalies at a tertiary care centre in north India over two decades.
Methods: Electronic records of all live births from January 1998 to December 2017 were retrieved, and the neonates with congenital anomaly were included in this retrospective analysis. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth revision (ICD-10) was used for uniformity and international comparison. The further sub-categorization was done as per the WHO birth defects surveillance manual. The prevalence of individual as well as overall congenital anomalies was calculated. Run charts were used to analyze the trends.
Results: In the two decades studied (1998-2017), there were 86850 live births, of which 1578 [1.82%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.73-1.91%] neonates had a major congenital anomaly. The overall prevalence of anomalies was 182 (95% CI: 173-191) per 10,000 live births. Malformation of the circulatory system was the most common (28.0%) followed by musculoskeletal (18.6%) and urinary system (14.3%). Congenital anomaly-related death rate was 6.78 per 1000 live births. No significant trend was observed in the annual prevalence, individual malformations or contribution of congenital anomalies to overall mortality over the two decades.
Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed a high prevalence of congenital anomalies which could be responsible for significant mortality, warranting the need for a national surveillance programme and birth defect services. It is important to have a national database to know the overall burden and spectrum of congenital anomalies in the country.
Keywords: Birth defects; congenital anomalies; malformation; mortality; neonate; stillbirth.