Incidence and patterns of major congenital anomalies at saint paul’s hospital millinium medical college, addis ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Early developmental stages are susceptible to disruption because it is the period for organogenesis which refers to the 4th to 8th weeks of development. Congenital malformation is defined as “a permanent change produced by an intrinsic abnormality of development in a body structure during prenatal life”. Major congenital malformations in different population around the world has shown considerable variation and ranges from less than 1% up to 8%. For various reasons, there is scarce of data and research on birth defects in Ethiopia. Objective: - To assess the incidence of major congenital anomalies and their pattern of distribution at Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at SPHMMC for 4 months, from September 1, 2022 to December 31,2022.All Women admitted for elective termination of pregnancy for fetal congenital anomaly were involved in the study.Data were collected using interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were cleaned and entered into Epi Info version 7 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. In the analysis process, the frequency distribution of variables was calculated. Results: Among a total of 4050 outcomes, there were 3675 deliveries and 375 cases of 2nd trimester abortion including elective termination of pregnancy for fetal anomalies (ETOPFA), safe and spontaneous abortions. Out of the total outcome, there were 115 major anomaly affected cases making an incidence of congenital anomaly of 312.93 per 10,000 births or overall proportion of birth defects 2.8%. The mean age of mothers was 28+5. Of all 115 major anomaly affected cases: nervous system accounted 33.3%, congenital heart disease 19.6%, digestive system 19%, genitourinary system 12.4%, musculoskeletal system 5.9%, genetic/chromosomal4.6%, respiratory system 3.9% and the rest 1.3% were unclassified. Conclusions: The overall magnitude of birth defect was 2.8%. Seven patterns of major congenital anomalies were identified; nervous system was the most frequent by accounting one third, followed by congenital heart disease and digestive system each accounting almost one fifth of major congenital anomalies. The medical workforce and managers should give emphasis to congenital anomalies.