Prevalence of congenital malformations at birth in chilean maternity hospitals Prevalencia al nacimiento de malformaciones congénitas en las maternidades chilenas participantes en el ECLAMC en el período 2001-2010

© 2014, Sociedad Medica de Santiago. All rights reserved. Background: The Latin American Collaborative Study of Congenital Malformations (ECLAMC) is an epidemiological surveillance system operating in 11 South American countries since 1969. Aim: To analyze the Congenital Malformation prevalence rate at birth from 2001 to 2010 in Chilean Hospitals participating in ECLAMC. To compare these rates with those of the period 1982-1994. Material and Methods: Review of the ECLAMC database, which contains information about 282.568 newborns, 2.110 of them stillbirths (0.75%) from 13 Maternity hospitals. Results: In the study period, 10.925 newborns had congenital malformations (3.9 %). Their frequency was lower in live newborns than stillbirths (3.8 and 15.3%, respectively). Compared with the 1982-1994 period, congenital malformation prevalence rates at birth were higher. They stabilized in approximately 4 %, from 1985 to 2010. The prevalence of some anomalies such as Down syndrome increased sig