OBJECTIVES: to determine the incidence of congenital malformations in newborns in a university maternity hospital in Recife and assess the impact of malformation in perinatal and neonatal mortality. METHODS: a longitudinal study was performed from September 2004 to May 2005 with all deliveries at the Instituto Materno Infantil Prof. Fernando Figueira, IMIP analyzed. The type and incidence of congenital malformations were determined, and fetal mortality, perinatal mortality, early and late neonatal mortality coefficients were calculated. RESULTS: malformation incidence was of 2.8% (in 4.043 births). Malformation percentages among live births was of 2.7% and among stillbirths of 6.7%. The most frequent malformations involved the central nervous system (principally hydrocephaly and meningomyelocele), the skeletal and muscular system and cardiopathies. There was no association between malformation and gender, but prematurity and low birthweight were more frequent among the malformation cases. It was determined that among malformed infants early neonatal mortality was of 32.7% and late neonatal mortality was of 10.6%. Malformation cases were 6.7% of stillborn babies, 24.2% of early neonatal deaths and 25.8% the total of neonatal deaths. CONCLUSIONS: malformation incidence corresponded to 2.8% of the births. Malformation was the second more frequent neonatal death cause following prematurity.
Abnormalities; Infant mortality; Infant; newborn
