By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Rate of Severe Stomach Birth Defect Increased Over Two Decades: CDC
THURSDAY, Jan. 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A birth defect involving the stomach called gastroschisis has been increasing among U.S. infants for decades, and more than doubled among young, black mothers over an 18-year period, federal health officials report.
Babies with gastroschisis have a hole in the stomach wall at birth through which the intestines, and sometimes other organs such as the liver, protrude. The condition requires immediate surgery. Most babies do well after the operation, experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
...
What causes the condition isn't known, Gilboa said. However, some possible risk factors have been identified.
These include smoking, illegal drug use, alcohol use, and being underweight before getting pregnant. "But we don't know if these are the explanation for what we are seeing," Gilboa said.
The report was published in the Jan. 22 issue of the CDC's
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"
The concerning part of this is the inexorable rise in gastroschisis going back to the 1970s," said Dr. Edward McCabe, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the March of Dimes.
More research is needed, he said. "When you see something rising as fast as this is in all population groups, and in all ages, it tells you something serious is going on. We need to try and figure out what it is so we can prevent the rise," McCabe said....
