The national incidence and outcomes of gastroschisis repairs.

The birth prevalence of gastroschisis worldwide has increased over the past decades. We aim to determine the Irish national incidence of gastroschisis repairs (NIGR) over a 5 year period (2007- 2011) and clinical outcomes by a retrospective cohort review of cases admitted to all Irish paediatric surgical units. Seventy patients were identified. The NIGR per 10,000 live births was 1.96 (SD 0.51) per year. Fifty eight (82%) were antenatally detected. Twenty eight (40%) had primary repair day 1 with the remaining repaired in a median of 3(2-5.75) days. Thirty three (47%) experienced a central catheter related infection. Duration of stay was significantly correlated with decreasing gestational age (p = 0.016), decreasing birthweight (p = 0.005), increasing numbers of blood transfusions (p < 0.001) and co-morbidity or complication (p < 0.001). This study provides individual centres with patient outcomes and national data that can be provided to parents and clinical staff regarding the clinical course of gastroschisis.