BACKGROUND Health care use and costs for children with spina bifida (SB) are significantly greater than those of unaffected children. Little is known about hospital use and costs across health insurance payer types. We examined hospitalizations and associated costs by sociodemographic characteristics and payer type during the first year of life among children with SB. We also examined changes i...

In England and Wales as a whole the frequency of neural tube malformations is highest in the north and north-west, and lowest in the east, south-east, and south (Rogers, 1969). Differences have also been reported in the regional frequency of anencephalus, spina bifida, and hydrocephalus in Scotland (Edwards, 1958), and Hewitt (1963) found that the mortality attributed to spina bifida was two to...

The "dead donor rule" is increasingly under attack for several reasons. First, there has long been disagreement about whether there is a correct or coherent definition of "death." Second, it has long been clear that the concept and ascertainment of "brain death" is medically flawed. Third, the requirement stands in the way of improving organ supply by prohibiting organ removal from patients who...

The relationships between the occurrence of anencephalus and spina bifida, sibship size and birth rank were examined, using linked records for births in British Columbia. Comparison of 414 sibships in which at least one infant had a neural tube defect with 1362 randomly chosen unaffected sibships showed that the affected sibships were larger. There were both more births than expected after the ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of selective feticide (SF) compared to expectant management (EM) on perinatal outcome in dichorionic and monochorionic twins discordant for anencephaly. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic review of literature and added ten unpublished cases. As a result, we found that in dichorionic twins, mean gestational age (GA) at birth in the SF gro...

Food insecurity represents a lack of access to enough food to meet basic needs. We hypothesized that food insecurity may increase birth defect risks, because it is an indicator of increased stress or compromised nutrition, which are both implicated in birth defect etiologies. This study used population-based case-control data. Included in the analysis were 1,189 case mothers and 695 control mot...

1918 10. A modification of the Ahlfeld method for determining the maturity of the foetus in utero. Surg. Gyn. Obst., 1918, 26, 563-565. 11. Family prevalence in anencephaly. J. Am. M. Ass., 1918, 70, 10. 12. An efficient and inexpensive incubator. Am. J. Obst., 1918, 78, 542-544. 13. The use of iodine in the preparation of the patient for delivery. J. Am. M. Ass., 1918, 70, 1115. 1919 14. The c...