2016 Volume 52 Issue 7 Pages 1285-1289
Purpose: The survival of infants with surgical diseases has gradually been improving with advances in perinatal medicine. Partly because of ethical issues, establishing an appropriate diagnostic and treatment strategy for newborns with chromosomal abnormalities is sometimes difficult. We report surgical cases with chromosomal abnormalities at our hospital.
Methods: The subjects were 32 surgical cases who had trisomy 13 and 18 in our department between 1980 and 2015. Four cases were lost in follow up and were excluded. Primary disease, gestational age, birth weight, surgical treatment, and surgical outcome were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: Mean gestational age was 33.6 weeks, mean birth weight was 1,459.7 g, heart disease rate was 90.6%, and mean duration of survival was 229 days. Diseases were gastrointestinal disease (n = 25), respiratory disease (n = 5), tumor (n = 1), and others (n = 1). The survival duration was significantly longer for the patients who received pediatric surgical treatment and cardiovascular surgical treatment.
Conclusions: Trisomy 13 and 18 cases have a poor survival rate. The medical team and parents should spend sufficient time establishing an appropriate treatment strategy, and a multidisciplinary medical team should fully understand the infant and family’s social background prior to treatment. It was considered that the surgical treatment would affect life prognosis. Further studies are needed to improve support measures for infants with severe defects.
