Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of selected congenital anomalies at the largest Bosnian pediatric surgery tertiary center

Abstract

Congenital anomalies (CA) are any abnormality present at birth, either structural or functional, that may potentially affect an infant's health, development, and/or survival. There is a paucity of studies on clinical characteristics and outcomes of CA in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly due to the lack of a nationwide congenital malformations monitoring system. A 5-year hospital-based study was conducted to determine the prevalence at birth and clinical characteristics of selected major CA in Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ninety-one CA were observed from 2012 to 2016 (the overall prevalence was 39.6 cases/10,000 live births). The mean age of neonates at diagnosis was 3 days. The gastrointestinal tract was the most commonly affected system (76.9%), with esophageal atresia (EA) being the most frequent (17.6% of all CA). Major CA were more prevalent among preterm infants than term infants (P = .001), particularly in males (61.5% vs. 38.5%; P = .028; M:F ratio was 1.59). Multiple CA were seen in 37.4% of neonates. The overall mortality rate of neonates was 11%, and the median length of hospital stay was 19.8 days. Our study revealed the distribution and clinical patterns of common major CA in the largest tertiary care facility in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also confirmed a relatively high mortality rate, which requires further efforts to improve the quality of neonatal care in the country.

Epidemiology, Clinical Pattern and Management Outcome of Paediatric Burn Injuries in Nepal

“…Our findings that the majority (68.5%) of patients were managed conservatively agrees with literature in the past. 6,8 18% of our population required wound debridement and graft, similar to Zvizdic et al from Bosnia Herzegovina, 6 Ozotrun et al from Turkey 17 and Chaudhary et al from our institute. 8 0.7% patients in our study required limb or digit amputations.…”

“…Similar findings have been reported by Zvizdic et al who found that TBSA < 10% accounted for 71.2% of cases and > 30% for 2.7% of cases. 6 However, this is in contrary to previous study from our institute by Chaudhary et al Their study reported only 45.8% of patients having burns < 10% TSBA and 7% of patients TBSA > 30%. 8 The recent shift in clinical pattern towards less severe burns suggests there may be improvements in burn education and prevention in Nepal.…”

“…5 Burns result in long term social, psychological, economical complications for patients and their families as well as complications of scarring, contracture and limb amputation. 6 Ninety percent burn deaths occur in low income countries due to inconsistent quality of care and lack of preventive programmes. 7 There is dearth of literature in regards to burn injuries in our part of the world.…”