European study showed that children with congenital anomalies often underwent multiple surgical procedures at different ages across Europe

Aim: Children with congenital anomalies often require surgery but data on the burden of surgery for these children are limited.Methods: A population-based record-linkage study in Finland, Wales and regions of Denmark, England, Italy and Spain. A total of 91 504 children with congenital anomalies born in 1995-2014 were followed to their tenth birthday or the end of 2015. Electronic linkage to hospital databases provided data on inpatient surgical procedures and meta-analyses of surgical procedures were performed by age groups.Results: The percentage of children having surgery in the first year was 38% with some differences across regions and 14% also underwent surgery at age 1-4 years. Regional differences in age at the time of their first surgical procedure were observed for children with cleft palate, hydronephrosis, hypospadias, clubfoot and craniosynostosis. The children had a median of 2.0 (95% CI 1.98, 2.02) surgical procedures before age 5 years with children with oesophageal atresia having the highest median number of procedures (4.5; 95% CI 3.3, 5.8).Conclusion: A third of children with congenital anomalies required surgery during infancy and often more than one procedure was needed before age 5 years. There was no European consensus on the preferred age for surgery for some anomalies.

Automated summary

This study conducted a record-linkage study in several regions to investigate the burden of surgery for children with congenital anomalies. It found that 38% of these children underwent surgery in their first year, with regional differences observed. On average, these children had 2 surgical procedures before the age of 5, with those with esophageal atresia requiring the highest number of procedures. Furthermore, there was no consensus among European countries regarding the preferred age for surgery for certain anomalies.