TY - JOUR T1 - Gastrostomy and congenital anomalies: a European population-based study JF - BMJ Paediatrics Open JO - BMJ Paediatrics Open DO - 10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001526 VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - e001526 AU - Ester Garne AU - Joachim Tan AU - Maria Loane AU - Silvia Baldacci AU - Elisa Ballardini AU - Joanne Brigden AU - Clara Cavero-Carbonell AU - Laura GarcĂ­a-Villodre AU - Mika Gissler AU - Joanne Given AU - Anna Heino AU - Sue Jordan AU - Elizabeth Limb AU - Amanda Julie Neville AU - Anke Rissmann AU - Michele Santoro AU - leuan Scanlon AU - Stine Kjaer Urhoj AU - Diana G Wellesley AU - Joan Morris Y1 - 2022/06/01 UR - http://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e001526.abstract N2 - Objective To report and compare the proportion of children with and without congenital anomalies undergoing gastrostomy for tube feeding in their first 5 years.Methods A European, population-based data-linkage cohort study (EUROlinkCAT). Children up to 5 years of age registered in nine EUROCAT registries (national and regional) in six countries and children without congenital anomalies (reference children) living in the same geographical areas were included. Data on hospitalisation and surgical procedures for all children were obtained by electronic linkage to hospital databases.Results The study included 91 504 EUROCAT children and 1 960 272 reference children. Overall, 1200 (1.3%, 95% CI 1.2% to 1.6%) EUROCAT children and 374 (0.016%, 95% CI 0.009% to 0.026%) reference children had a surgical code for gastrostomy within the first 5 years of life. There were geographical variations across Europe with higher rates in Northern Europe compared with Southern Europe. Around one in four children with Cornelia de Lange syndrome and Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome had a gastrostomy. Among children with structural anomalies, those with oesophageal atresia had the highest proportion of gastrostomy (15.9%).Conclusions This study including almost 2 million reference children in Europe found that only 0.016% of these children had a surgery code for gastrostomy before age 5 years. The children with congenital anomalies were on average 80 times more likely to need a gastrostomy before age 5 years than children without congenital anomalies. More than two-thirds of gastrostomy procedures performed within the first 5 years of life were in children with congenital anomalies.Data are available on request. ER -