The objective: to characterize pregnancy course and clinical outcomes for newborns in cases of congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and to compare these data with the results of prenatal examinations Materials and methods. Results of complex prenatal examination of 259 fetuses as patients with diaphragmatic hernia, which were referred to the department of Fetal medicine in 2007–2020, were analyzed. Data on pregnancy course and clinical outcome for infants were collected in 144 cases: from medical records of the Institute (n=77), and by direct survey, if delivery and specialized care took place in other institutions (n=67). The results were compared depending on the clinical outcome and the place of care. Results. Among 144 cases with known outcome, 140 (97.2%) were singleton and 4 (2.8%) were twin pregnancies with only one affected fetus. Termination of pregnancy for fetal anomalies before to 22 weeks was performed in 16.7% (44/144), 83.3% of cases (120/144) ended in childbirth. Before 22 weeks for prenatal examination were referred 30.6% (44/144) of women, of them 54.5% (24/44) have chosen termination in presence of unfavorable prognosis, and in the remaining 45.5% (20/44) cases pregnancy was prolonged. Of the 120 labors, 92.5% were term and 7.5% preterm. Antenatal death after 22 weeks occurred in 4.2% (5/120) cases. Among liveborn infants before surgical correction in the clinics of the Institute have died 25% (18/72), and in other institutions 37.2% (16/43), р>0.05. Postoperative mortality was 13% (7/54) in the Institute and 42.3% (11/26) in other institutions, р=0.0032. The rate of associated pathology was significantly higher among children treated in other institutions (25.6% vs. 5.6%), but the proportion of operated patients did not differ significantly (60.5% in other institutions and 75% in the Institute). Comparison of data of prenatal examination showed significantly higher rate of associated pathology (26.3% vs. 3.2%), polyhydramnios (50.9% vs. 20.6%), right-sided hernia (21.2% vs. 6.3%) and liver herniation in left-sided hernia (81.8% vs. 28.8%) in the group with negative outcome. Conclusions. The majority of pregnancies with diaphragmatic hernia in the fetus ended in childbirth, with high mortality rate. Strategy of complex prenatal examination in cases of congenital diaphragmatic hernia, prognosis evaluation by multidisciplinary council with individualized pregnancy/labor management planning, and delayed surgical correction allow to optimize specialized care and to avoid ineffective surgical interventions in extremely severe clinical and anatomical variants of pathology. Keywords: congenital diaphragmatic hernia, prenatal diagnosis, chromosomal anomalies, congenital malformations, pregnancy, labor.
Difficult Journey from Delivery to Discharge, Case of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
