.PNG)
Ten-year survival of children with congenital anomalies: a European cohort study
Lay Summary
In this part of the EUROlinkCAT project, we analysed data on the survival of children with different congenital anomalies (also known as birth defects) during their first 10 years of life.
Thirteen participating congenital anomaly registries from nine Western European countries that are part of the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) collaboration, successfully linked their data on children with congenital anomalies born during 2005-2014 to their region’s mortality data.
We analysed survival in children according to the congenital anomaly they had, firstly all children with only the one specified anomaly (for example, coarctation of the aorta) and secondly all children with the specified anomaly regardless of whether they had other additional anomalies.
We found that survival was relatively high in children with a single anomaly (about 97 of 100 children survived to 10 years of age with the highest number of deaths during the first year of life), but survival varied considerably between different anomaly types depending on the severity of the anomaly. Children with severe anomalies such as hypoplastic left heart and congenital diaphragmatic hernia had much lower survival rates. The presence of additional anomalies was also associated with reduced survival. For children with Down syndrome, survival at 10 years of age was much better in those children who did not have additional cardiac or digestive system anomalies.
This study provided reliable information on the survival of children born with different congenital anomalies, which is valuable for parents of these children and for the health practitioners caring for them.
Full paper
https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-053793
.JPG)
Submitted version of paper prior to publication