Letter to Editor

A Review of Congenital Malformations among Live-born Neonates at a Tertiary Care Hospital in North India To the Editor,

among neonates admitted to our hospital between There are concerns that the incidence of congenital anomalies January 1, and August 31, 2022. A total of 1458 neonates has arisen after the onset of coronavirus infection and were live-born during this time period. Among them, 17 (1.2%) disease (COVID-19) pandemic which could be due to several had some congenital anomaly, a rate of 116.6 per 10,000 live factors including maternal fever, stress, anxiety, inadequate births. There were an additional 11 extramural neonates with preconceptional, and prenatal care. A recent data extracted some anomaly during the same time period. There was a from the National Birth Registry in Iran described that during predisposition for male gender with male: female ratio among November 2020–February 2021, 0.58% of newborns had affected neonates being 1.5:1. Majority were born at term gestation (

congenital anomalies against the 0.47% incidence during the n-22; 78.6%) and 25.0% ( n = 7) were low birth weight <2500 g. The most common organ system involved was same time period pre-COVID-19.[1] This has been documented cardiovascular system (34%), followed by neurospine (17%) in Henan Province, Central China that over the years, the and musculoskeletal system (17%) [Figure 1]. The spectrum incidence of neural tube defects has decreased and that of of congenital anomalies identified are presented in Table 1.

congenital heart diseases has increased.[2]

There was one neonatal mortality among these 28 neonates, With a retrospective review of hospital data, we studied due to hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

the spectrum of congenital anomalies/defects identified The incidence of congenital anomalies among live-born neonates in our region (1.2%) is comparable to the pre-COVID-19

hospital-based published Indian data of 1.6%–1.7% from Pune and Shimla.[3,4] Similar to these abovementioned datasets,[3,4] we too recorded maximum (36.7%) contribution from congenital heart diseases and a relatively lower contribution from nervous system anomalies like neural tube defects. The limitation of these findings is that this is a retrospective review in which some of the cases with minor malformations could have missed mapping. This suggests the need of maintaining an effective surveillance system.

Financial support and sponsorship Nil.

Conflicts of interest

Figure 1: Pattern of organ system involvement There are no conflicts of interest.

Table 1: System-wise spectrum of congenital anomalies System involved

Congenital defect/anomaly

Frequency (%)

Cardiovascular system

Acyanotic heart disease

9 (31.0)

Cyanotic heart disease

1 (3.4)

Brain and spine

Neural tube defect (meningocele, thoracolumbar rachischisis) 2 (6.9)

Hydrocephalus (congenital aqueductal stenosis, Dandy–Walker malformation) 2 (6.9)

Sacrococcygeal teratoma

1 (3.4)

Musculoskeletal system

Polydactyly

4 (13.8)

Genu recurvatum

1 (3.4)

Genito-urinary system

Hypospadias

3 (10.3)

Gastro-intestinal system

Anorectal malformation (analatresia) 1 (3.4)

Orofacial cleft

2 (6.9)

Respiratory system

Laryngomalacia

1 (3.4)

Others

Aplasia cutis congenita

1 (3.4)

Trisomy 21

1 (3.4)

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© 2025 Acta Medica International | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

Letter to Editor

Vishwajeet Singh, Priyanka Gupta, Vivek, Ravindranath Mandal Ravi This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Department of Pediatrics, ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad, Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to Haryana, India

remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Address for correspondence: Dr. Priyanka Gupta, Department of Pediatrics, ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad, Submitted: 11-Dec-2022 Revised: 04-Apr-2023

Haryana, India.

Accepted: 12-Feb-2025 Published: 30-Apr-2025

E-mail: drpriyankaguptakapil@gmail.com Access this article online

references

Quick Response Code:

1. Heidarzadeh M, Taheri M, Mazaheripour Z, Abbasi-Khameneh F. The Website:

http://journals.lww.com/amit

incidence of congenital anomalies in newborns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ital J Pediatr 2022;48:174.

2. Yu Z, Li D, Sun L, Zhao X, Chang H, Cui L, et al. Long-term trends in DOI:

the incidence of congenital anomalies in Central China from 1997 to 10.4103/amit.amit_106_22

2019. Public Health 2022;203:47-52.

3. Bhide P, Gund P, Kar A. Prevalence of congenital anomalies in an Indian maternal cohort: Healthcare, prevention, and surveillance implications.

How to cite this article: Singh V, Gupta P, Vivek, Ravi RM. A review of PLoS One 2016;11:e0166408.

congenital malformations among live-born neonates at a tertiary care hospital 4. Yadav P, Sharma R, Sharma J, Kumar P, Sharma D. Congenital in North India. Acta Med Int 2025;12:72-3.

anomalies in neonates – A study at medical college hospital in Himachal Pradesh. J Pediatr Assoc India 2017;6:7-14.

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