Original CommunicationsThe incidence and epidemiology of congenital upper limb anomalies: A total population study*,**
Section snippets
Methods/Materials
Data on babies born with CULA were obtained from the Western Australian Birth Defects Registry, a population-based register of major and minor birth defects diagnosed up to the age of 6 years in children born in Western Australia.10
Data were collated from notifications submitted by midwives, pediatricians, obstetricians, geneticists, surgeons, and other clinicians who may have had contact with any children during this period. These data were cross-referenced with the other sources as they were
Prevalence data
During the 11-year period from 1980 to 1990, 509 live births with CULA were reported. There were 257,430 live births during this period. Thus, the prevalence of babies born with 1 or more CULA was 1 in 506, or 1.97 per 1,000 live births. Forty-six percent of the babies with a CULA had some other anomaly of which 101 (20%) were syndromic, 48 (9%) had multiple anomalies that were not classifiable into a syndrome, 45 (9%) had a foot anomaly, and 40 (8%) a single other anomaly.
The 509 babies had
Discussion
The prevalence of 1 in 506 live births born with a CULA compares well with the extrapolated estimate proposed by Conway and Bowe8 of 1 in 626. This comparison is especially close when we consider our prevalence of potential clinic attenders (1 in 610) which resembles the Conway and Bowe study population.
In our study, more than half the babies had bilateral anomalies and more than 16% had multiple anomalies; thus, if one studies only the anomalies, an inflated prevalence figure is obtained. We
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to Louise Grace for her assistance in data retrieval, interpretation, and statistics.
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No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
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Reprint requests: Henk Giele, MD, Department of Plastic Surgery, Radcliffe Infirmary, Woodstock Road, Oxford. OX2 6HE, England.