14th Annual Congress on
Neonatal Healthcare

Biography:

Dr. Sallout is a certified Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) consultant from university of Ottawa, Canada, with American Specialty in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has special training in fetal echocardiograph and 3D/4D sonography. He developed the ultrasound Unit and established the MFM department, and currently, the Medical Director for the Women’s Specialized Hospital, King Fahad Medical City. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He has 17 publications in the field of obstetrics ultrasound and fetal medicine, and he participated and presented in many international and local conferences.

Abstract:

The prevalence of major congenital anomalies in Saudi Arabia is a largely understudied area. Knowing the prevalence of birth defects and their trends is important in identifying potential factors that are either causative or preventative. Early antenatal diagnosis of major congenital anomalies is important for possible termination of pregnancy, fetal or neonatal. We determined the prevalence of major congenital anomalies in our hospital population since implementation of an improved screening system.

This single-centre prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh. A total of 63,452 obstetrical ultrasound examinations were performed for 30,632 female Saudi obstetric patients from the period of January 2007 to December 2012.

A total of 1,598 fetuses were diagnosed with major congenital anomalies, including 1,064 (66.6%) fetuses with isolated major anomalies and 534 (33.4%) fetuses with non-isolated major anomalies. The antenatal prevalence of congenital anomalies was 52.1 per 1000 pregnancies. The median maternal age at diagnosis was 29 years. The median gestational age at diagnosis was 30 weeks of gestation. Two hundred and eighty five cases (17.85%) had a previous family history of similar anomalies. The most commonly diagnosed anomalies involved the genitourinary system (652 cases). The birth prevalence of major congenital anomalies was 46.5 per 1000 live births.

The prevalence of major congenital anomalies in our hospital population appears to be higher than international prevalences, with a high recurrence rate. Environmental, nutritional and social factors may be contributing to this phenomenon.