Major congenital surgical malformations among Yemeni children admitted to the pediatric surgery unit in al-Gamhouria Teaching Hospital, Aden

Abstract EN

The aim of this study is to find out the percent of congenital malformations at Al-Gamhouria Teaching Hospital, a referral hospital in Aden, Republic of Yemen, in January 2000 -December 2004.

Data were collected from the clinical records of children admitted to the Pediatrics Surgical Unit., Out of 3174 cases, 588(18.5%) were diagnosed with different types of congenital malformations in different body systems.

This study revealed that .the highest number of congenital malformation was in the year 2000(27.6 % ).There was a male to female predominance with a ratio 3 : 1 respectively.

The majority of affected children were at the age less than 1 year (33.

% ).Anomalies of the genitourinary system had the highest percentage (36.7), followed by digestive system (36.1 % ) and central nervous system(23,1 % ) We also found that inguinal hernia (16.2 % ), meningocele (11.1 % ) and imperforated Anus (9.0 % ) were the most common congenital malformations among children.

We concluded that the rate of congenital malformations in Aden, Republic of Yemen, was high compared with other pediatric surgical diseases.

For that, we need more analytical research studies, in depth, to determine the possible genetic, sociodemographic and socioenvironmental factors underlying the various types of congenital malformations encountered in this area.