title: Oesophageal atresia: prevalence, prenatal diagnosis and associated anomalies in 23 European regions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe prevalence, prenatal diagnosis and epidemiological data on oesophageal atresia from 23 well-defined European regions and compare the prevalence between these regions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Population-based study using data from a large European database for surveillance of congenital anomalies (EUROCAT) for two decades (1987-2006).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three participating registries based on multiple sources of information including information about live births, fetal deaths with gestational age ≥20 weeks and terminations of pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  1222 cases of oesophageal atresia in a population of 5 019 804 births.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall prevalence was 2.43 cases per 10 000 births (95% CI 2.30 to 2.57). There were regional differences in prevalence ranging from 1.27 to 4.55. Prenatal detection rates varied by registry from >50% of cases to <10% of cases. A total of 546 cases (44.7%) had an isolated oesophageal anomaly, 386 (31.6%) were multiple malformed and 290 (23.7%) had an association or a syndrome. There were 1084 live born cases (88.7%), 43 cases were fetal deaths and 95 cases were terminations of pregnancy. One-week survival for live births was 86.9% and 99.2% if the gestational age was ≥38 weeks and isolated oesophageal atresia was present. Males accounted for 57.3% of all cases and 38.5% of live born cases were born with gestational age <37 weeks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were regional differences in prevalence of oesophageal atresia in Europe. Half of all cases had associated anomalies. Prenatal detection rate increased from 26% to 36.5% over the two decades. Survival in infants with isolated oesophageal atresia born at term is high.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark. rnp@dadlnet.dk
authors.forename: Rikke Neess
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Calzolari
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Husby
authors.forename: Ester
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garne
mesh_terms: D000015:Abnormalities, Multiple / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004933:Esophageal Atresia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005313:Fetal Death; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007391:International Cooperation; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014138:Tracheoesophageal Fistula / Q000453:epidemiology