INTRODUCTION:

The prevalence of congenital malformations (CM) detected at birth ranges between 2 and 5.5 live births, with significant variation, depending on the characteristics of the population and the study methodology.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the prevalence and type of CM in newborns attended by the neonatology service in a period of one year.

METHODS:

Cross-sectional study. Clinical records of all live births attended in the neonatology service of our hospital during 2015 were reviewed. Neonates that were detected with morphological alterations at birth and/or before his discharge referred at the clinical record, were included.

RESULTS:

We detected 117 congenital malformations in 98 neonates, from a total of 4,097 newborns studied, resulting in a prevalence of 2.39% in the analysis per individual and 2.85% when taking into account all malformations. The most commonly affected systems were: genitourinary (29.1%), osteomuscular (21.4%) and circulatory (16.2%). The most frequent CM were cryptorchidism (14.5%), hypospadias (12.8%) andankyloglossia (10.3%).

CONCLUSION:

The prevalence rate of CM was 23.9 per 1,000 live newborns, which coincides with the reported in the rest of the world, being the genitourinary system the most affected one and the cryptorchidism the most frequent CM in our population.