Management and prognosis of congenital chylous ascites in 20 infants / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To summarize the perinatal management and prognosis of congenital chylous ascites (CCA).Methods:Clinical data of 20 infants diagnosed with CCA and treated in Guangdong Women and Children Hospital from June 2015 to November 2020 were retrospectively analyzed and described.Results:There were ten patients with isolated CCA and ten with non-isolated CCA. In isolated CCA cases, seven were cured after conservative treatment and three after postoperative conservative treatment following an ineffective surgery. Non-isolated CCA cases were complicated by intrauterine cytomegalovirus infection ( n=1), malrotation of intestine ( n=4) or bilateral chylothorax ( n=5). In addition to conservative treatment for CCA, non-isolated CCA patients also received antiviral therapy, Ladd's procedure or intrauterine/extrauterine closed thoracic drainage. Of eight patients who were firstly diagnosed with ascites before 30 gestational weeks, including four isolated and four non-isolated cases, only one underwent surgical intervention. During hospitalization, serious infections occurred in three infants with isolated CCA and two with non-isolated CCA, and were all controlled by anti-infection treatment. During a follow-up to median age of 29 months (15-82 months), none of the patients had any abnormalities except for the one with intrauterine cytomegalovirus infection who was deaf at the age of two. Conclusions:Conservative management is effective and the prognosis is generally good for most cases with isolated CCA. Treatment and prognosis of non-isolated CCA depend on its comorbidities. Gestational age at diagnosis may not be a prognostic predictor.