Abstract

Newborns have unique anatomy and physiology, the presentation of which is relatively an unexplored territory to Orthopaedic surgeons and hence is a matter of concern. Due to limited literature and records available about the same, it raises a platform for further research and study.
This study aims to estimate the magnitude of musculoskeletal deformity among the newborns by evaluating the hospital incidence of musculoskeletal birth deformity and enumerate different musculoskeletal deformities and report it as proportion.
This is a prospective observatory study done in a tertiary care hospital of south India for a period of two years. All the live births born, routinely screened by the department of Paediatrics were referred to the Department of Orthopaedics in case of underlying musculoskeletal deformity. Whereas all the dead births born (inclusive of intra-uterine demises, still-births, and abortions) with any involvement of the musculoskeletal system in the antenatal ultra-sonographic foetal scan were notified to the Department of Orthopaedics. A thorough physical examination was conducted on all the referrals. Data was recorded, compiled, tabulated and analysed.
A total of 5837 new births were screened for musculoskeletal birth deformity which were inclusive of 5668 live births born and 169 dead births born. Overall hospital incidence of musculoskeletal birth deformity in our study was 9.25 per 1000 births (54 cases) and 5.46 per live births (31 cases). Club foot was the most common defect overall (17 cases/ 31.5%) and among the live births whereas spina bifida was the second (16 cases/ 29.6%) and most common among dead births.
The magnitude of musculoskeletal birth deformity is not as low as to be ignored by Orthopaedics surgeons. Few more studies will help in increasing the awareness of common deformity among the doctors thereby reducing the morbidities of musculoskeletal birth deformity by early diagnosis and apt treatment.