Frequency of external congenital abnormalities in abortions

The purpose of this study was to calculate the incidence of external birth defects found in 1,650 aborted fetuses studied from September 1978 to February 1983 at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics of the University Hospital "Dr. José Eleuterio González" of the U.A.N.L. Medical School. Ninety five of fetuses had external birth defects and 85 had abnormalities in annexes. The Fisher exact test was applied to find the relationship between these abnormalities; no relationship was found. 67.4% had only one birth defect; 32.1% showed several defects. Those defects which were lethal constituted 67%, the majority being of the central nervous system. Defects found in the abdominal wall took second place in frequency followed by abnormalities in either extremity and ear defects. The birth defects seen in early gestational ages differ from those seen in live newborn babies. It is important to carry out morphological and teratological studies, not only in newborns but also during the embrion and fetal periods.