Abstract
The authors report on the incidence of major and minor congenital abnormalities found in a survey of 448 consecutive new born infants in Fukuoka-chuo national hospital, with a review of the literature. Only those anomalies detectable by suface examination were studied.
Two per cent of the infants had major anomalies and 21.7 per cent had at least one minor anomaly.
The occurrence of a single minor anomaly was not unusual, but the finding of multiple minor anomalies in the same baby was unusual event except for those who had at least one major anomaly.
The detection of multiple minor anomalies in a baby may be valuable as an indicator of a more serious anomalies.
In addition, some peculiar pattern of minor anomalies may aid us in diagnosing a particular syndrome, for example, Down's syndrome.
