Congenital malformations in neonates admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit in a low-resource setting

Abstract

Introduction

Congenital malformations (CMs) are among the major causes of infant mortality in middle- and low-resource countries. This is the first study describing CMs in neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of a referral hospital in Mozambique.

Methods

We included all neonates with CMs admitted to the NICU of Beira Central Hospital from January 2015 to December 2016. CMs were classified according to the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10). All data were retrieved from medical charts.

Results

CMs were found in 143/4767 (3%) neonates admitted to the NICU. The most frequent CMs were musculoskeletal (31%), neurological (18%), multiple congenital anomalies (12%), chromosomopathies (11%), cardiovascular (10%), and gastrointestinal (8%). Forty-three patients (30%) underwent corrective surgery. Overall mortality rate was 50%.

Conclusions

The prevalence of CMs was 3%, with a mortality rate of 50%. Alongside implementation of antenatal screening programs, improvement on expertise and postnatal care of CMs are warranted.

Keywords:

• Congenital malformations
• newborn
• low-resource setting
• Mozambique

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to all the Obstetrical and NICU’s staff of the Beira Central Hospital for their work and to all the local CUAMM’s staff for their support during this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The authors have no financial relationship relevant to this article to disclose.