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Congenital anomalies often are detected late in pregnancy or during labor. It's pivotal to know the mortality rates for various birth defects, because mortality risk may affect labor management.
The Hawaii Birth Defects Program is a statewide, population-based registry of all live births, fetal deaths, and elective terminations in which there is at least 1 reportable birth defect. Investigators used this registry to identify and follow all anomalies in live births in Hawaii from 1986 through 1999.
Mortality rates during the first year of life were determined for 54 anomalies. As expected, rates were highest for anencephaly (100%), trisomy 13 (82%), and trisomy 18 (74%). However, for many other defects, mortality rates were lower than in previ…