Introduction:

Ultrasound is the main tool for diagnosis of congenital defects, especially structural ones, by means of an internal and external examination of the fetal anatomy.

Objective:

To characterize congenital defects diagnosed by prenatal ultrasonography.

Methods:

A longitudinal, descriptive study was carried out in Santiago de Cuba Municipality, covering the period 2016-2017. Genetic diseases were excluded. The sample consisted of 967 pregnant women with confirmed diagnosis of fetal structural congenital defects. The anomalies were classified by systems and the therapeutic behavior followed was assessed. The information was processed in a computerized way. The results were expressed in absolute values and percentages, as well as shown in tables.

Results:

In the period studied, 2.1% of the sample had a previous history of elective voluntary abortion. Adjusted prevalence for congenital defects was observed to be 10.1 per thousand live births. Advanced gestational age accounted for 50.9% of the cases under follow-up, of which 6.1% were stillbirths. The percentage of elective voluntary abortion reached 64.4% of the sample. The most frequent ultrasound findings were alterations of the central nervous system (23.4%), the genitourinary system (25.2%) and cardiovascular ones (18.1%). Facial defects were the least diagnosed (1.1%). Among those corresponding to the nervous system, there was a predominance of hydrocephalus (51.7%); septal defects predominated among cardiovascular ones, accounting for 28.0%; and hydronephrosis (66.0%) predominated among genitourinary ones.

Conclusions:

Prenatal ultrasonography was found to allow better pregnancy control, by contributing to the recognition of a large number of congenital defects, especially structural ones, during intrauterine life, a fact contributing to the reduction of perinatal morbidity and mortality.

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