FREQUENCY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BIRTH-DEFECTS ADMISSIONS TO A PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL IN VENEZUELA

A survey of the 6,161 admissions to a pediatric hospital of Caracas during 1976 was conducted to determine the frequency and some characteristics of those admissions due to birth defects. The charts of all patients in whom a birth defect had been suspected or diagnosed during admission were reviewed and analyzed. These admissions numbered 629, that is 10.2% of the total, and were categorized as follows: Birth defects of genetic origin: a) single gene - 3.2%; b) polygenic - multifactorial - 3.3%; c) chromosomal - 0.7%. Birth defects due to an intrauterine insult - 0.1%. Birth defects of unknown or heterogeneous causes - 2.9%. The mean length of hospitalization was higher for birth defects patients than for all admissions: 15.6 and 11.6 days, respectively. There was no difference in mortality during admission between birth defects patients and all admissions, both being rather high, 8.2 and 8.3%, respectively. The lower prevalence of birth defects observed in this study as compared with North American surveys is due to several factors, among which the most relevant is the persistent burden of environmental infectious and nutritional diseases in the pediatric age population in Venezuela. Nevertheless, it is thought that the forseeable improvement in medical care organization and socioeconomic conditions of the population will lead to a relative rise in the morbidity and mortality due to birth defects in the near future, as was the case in developed nations. Thus it is necessary to develop medical genetics services in major hospital centers in order to provide present and future demands of genetic care.