Introduction:

Gastroschisis is an abdominal wall defect localized right to the umbilical cord.

Objective:

To describe the postoperative evolution of newborns with gastroschisis with different surgical approaches.

Material and methods:

Observational, descriptive, and retrospective study with 93 newborns with gastroschisis, treated between 2015 and 2019 in four hospitals in Puebla, Mexico. There were two types of procedures for closure: sutured and sutureless. Registered variables were weight, gestational age, as well as the time to start oral feeding and hospitalization length.

Results:

there were 83 patients in the sutured group, and 10 in the sutureless group. In the sutured group, 57% were male, the median gestational age was 36 weeks and 2,550 g for weight. Of the 10 newborns in the sutureless group, 60% were male, with a median gestational age of 34 weeks and a weight of 2,365 g. The start of oral feeding in the first group had a median of 16 days (1-120 days), and 19 days (1-124) to complete feeding, and the median for hospital stay was 29 days (1-195). For the sutureless group, the data were 14 days (2-16), 18 days (6-20), and 25 days (18-44), respectively. The most common complication was sepsis in 53% of the sutured group and in 20% of the sutureless patients. There were seven deaths, but only in the sutured group.

Conclusions:

Apparently, newborns with gastroschisis undergoing sutureless closure have lower morbidity and mortality, however, these findings need be confirmed by increasing the number of patients with this procedure.