Epidemiology of gastroschisis in China

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of perinates with gastroschisis (GA) in China. METHODS: The birth defects monitoring program was undertaken in 945 hospitals from 29 provinces, cities and autonomous regions of China. Data about perinates including intrauterine death and stillbirth from 28 weeks of gestation to a period of 7 days after birth was collected through the medical records between October 1986 and September 1987. RESULTS: A total of 194 cases with GA was found in 1243284 perinates monitored. The incidence of GA in China varied from 0.4 to 3.4 with a mean of 1.6 per 10,000. The highest prevalence was in Shandong province (3.4/10,000) which was significantly higher than the average (P < 0.01). The prevalence of GA perinates with low birth weight was higher than that with normal birth weight (1.6 vs 0.6 per 10,000, P < 0.01), as well as that in the rural area higher than in the urban area (2.5 vs 1.1 per 10,000, P < 0.01). 70.6% of the cases with GA were accompanied with other major defects. The overall perinatal mortality rate (PMR) of GA was 91.8%. PMR of GA with other birth defects (95.6%) was significantly higher than that of GA only (82.5%, P < 0.01). Only 15% of GA were diagnosed before birth. CONCLUSIONS: GA was a serious malformation. Cases with GA had high PMR and low detection rates in prenatal diagnosis, and most often accompanied with multiple defects.