Objective: To describe pregnancy outcome and evaluate the prognostic factors for neonatal mortality in prenatally diagnosed congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).
Methods: We reviewed the medical records of women whose babies were diagnosed as CDH in prenatal period from May 2004 to September 2010 in Samsung Medical Center. Maternal age, gestational age (GA) at diagnosis and delivery, birth weight and method of delivery were evaluated. Antenatal ultrasound findings such as location of defect, associated anomaly, intrauterine growth retardation, abnormalities of amniotic fluid and lung-to-head ratio (LHR) were included in the analysis.
The neonatal outcome was evaluated including duration of admission after birth, timing of operation and mortality.
Results: Twenty-eight fetuses were diagnosed as CDH with a mean GA at diagnosis of 26.1 weeks (median: 25.4 range: 14.4~39.5). The location of defect was left in 24 cases (86.2%), right in 3 (10.3%). Seven (25%) had associated anomalies and 5 (17.2%) had liver herniation. LHR was measured in 12 cases and all had LHR less than 1. No chromosomal abnormality was found in all 11 who underwent karyotyping tests. Only 14 of 28 cases were followed up in which 1 was terminated and 13 was delivered. Among 13 live births, 6 survived while 7 did not (53.8% mortality rate). Five and 2 died before and after operation, respectively. There was no significant difference in GA at diagnosis and delivery, birth weight, location of defect, herniated organ and LHR between survivor and non-survivor, but a tendency of higher mortality in baby with low Apgar scores was seen.
Conclusion: A total of 46.4% of fetuses diagnosed as CDH were live born but showed mortality of 53.8%. However, we found no significant prognostic factor for neonatal mortality, may be due to small number of subjects, and therefore further study is mandatory.