Gastroschisis: diagnosis and surgical treatment

Abstract

Gastroschisis is a congenital malformation of the anterior abdominal wall with a defect to the right of the normally formed umbilical cord and eventration of the abdominal organs. Evented internal organs not covered with amniotic membrane are under the direct influence of amniotic fluid. Despite the increase in the incidence of the defect from 3.6 to 4.9 per 10,000 live births, over the past ten years mortality has sharply decreased to 5%. Antenatal diagnosis makes it possible to reliably identify cases of gastroschisis, starting from the 12th week of gestation, which is important especially when diagnosing complicated forms. Surgical correction involves primary radical plastic surgery of the anterior abdominal wall with simultaneous immersion of the eventrated organs into the abdominal cavity. However, in approximately every fifth patient, immediate correction is impossible due to the occurrence of viscero-abdominal disproportion and concomitant diseases. In these cases, temporary abdominal cavity occurs with delayed plasty of the anterior abdominal wall, enterostomy for intestinal decompression, resection of non-viable areas and interintestinal anastomoses. Among patients with complicated forms, there was an 8-fold increase in mortality. Despite significant advances in reducing mortality, the development of various treatment methods continues to provide an alternative method of correcting this lesion.