Prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 18: Report of 76 cases in a mainland Chinese hospital

Medical interventions and survival by gender of children with trisomy 18

“…These descriptive results from a large sample align with some current literature and anecdotal reports from parents [e.g., Janvier and Watkins, ]. Specifically, data presented here showed a large percentage of survivors (n = 59, 72%) including those receiving aggressive interventions (n = 23, 74.2%), which shows that aggressive interventions may impact survival as opposed to some literature that does not advocate for their use [Boss and Broers, ; Goc et al, ; Li and Liu, ]. Results also suggest that the sample described here from the TRIS project database may have included parents who advocate and request aggressive interventions, for their children in greater numbers than previously reported.…”

“…Additionally, life expectancy has been shown to be longer for females with full t18 than for males [Hsaio et al, 2009; Rosa et al, ; Wu et al, ]. As such, this disorder has been described as lethal due to the reported low survival rate [Bos and Broers, ; Goc et al, ; McGraw and Perlman, ; Li and Liu, ; Pruszewicz et al, ]. Hospice care is frequently recommended to keep the child comfortable and pain‐free.…”

“…Hospice care is frequently recommended to keep the child comfortable and pain‐free. Parents are often told that t18 is “incompatible with life” and, thus, medical interventions are not justified [Hentschel et al, ; Breeze et al, ; Romesberg, ; Everett and Albersheim, ; Li and Liu, ; Merritt et al, ; Pruszewicz et al, ].…”