Abstract
Personal clinico-pathological and epidemiological studies during the last 16 years strongly suggest that certain congenital deformities of the musculo-skeletal system, including sternomastoid torticollis, postural scoliosis, congenital dislocation of the hip and talipes, are caused by mechanical factors operating in late fetal life. Study of 6756 infants born consecutively in hospital revealed that such deformities were present in 2%; they were multiple in a third of cases and tended to occur in association with each other /P < 0.001/. Individually, and as a group, these postural deformities had a number of prenatal characteristics in common, including an association with first pregnancies /P < 0.001/, maternal hypertension /P <: 0.001/, and breech presentation /P < 0.001/. In particular, they occurred in association with maternal oligohydramnios, whether due to fetal oliguria, to premature rupture of the membranes, or with placental insufficiency. Infants with congenital postural deformities tended to be “small-for-dates” /P < 0.001/. The evidence suggests that this growth retardation is due in part to the factors primarily responsible for maternal oligohydramnios, and in part to the effect of the oligohydramnios itself.
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Dunn, P. GROWTH RETARDATION OF INFANTS WITH CONGENITAL POSTURAL DEFORMITIES. Pediatr Res 9, 858 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197511000-00035
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197511000-00035