Frequency of congenital anterior abdominal wall defects in surgically treated infants at Sarajevo region of Bosnia and Herzegovina: A nine-year follow-up

Objectives: Two main and the most common types of congenital abdominal wall defects are omphalocele and gastroschisis. According to the literature, the frequency of omphalocele is generally stable, the rate of gastroschisis has increased lately, and cloacal exstrophy is a very rare birth defect. Methods: A retrospective study was performed on the basis of clinical records for the period January 2000. to December 2008. and the standard methods of descriptive statistics were performed for the data analysis. Investigation was carried out to obtain the frequency and gender distribution of congenitalabdominal wall defects among patients surgically treated in the Clinic for Children’s Surgery, Clinical Center University of Sarajevo,Bosnia and Herzegovina. Results: A register-based data show that total of 26 abdominal wall defect cases were surgically treated in the investigated period. Out of that number 15 (60%) were male patients, while 11 (40%) were female patients; sex ratio – 1.5:1. Twenty patients had gastroschisis, five omphalocele and one patient were with cloacal exstrophy. Anomalies associated with abdominal wall defects were present in total of six patients (23%), four male (15%) and two female (8%) patients. Conclusion: The study allows the conclusion that abdominal wall defects are generally rare congenital anomalies of which cloacal exstrophy is the rarest, the gastroschisis is on the rising trend and omphalocele is generally stable. Keywords: omphalocele, gastroschisis, cloacal exstrophy, frequency