Background: Bowel atresia is a rare congenital anomaly that could affect any part of the bowel. It is categorized based on the type and location of the affected bowel with jejunoileal being the most common type worldwide. Risk factors for developing intestinal atresia are not well established, but we know that genetics, poor prenatal care, and low birth weight are considered risk factors.
Patients and methods: This is a case-control study conducted in King Abdulaziz Medical City tertiary hospital in Nursery Intensive Care Unit from 2004 to 2015 with a total number of 50 cases. Each case was matched with two control groups: a female and a male; the matching was based on the date of birth.
Results: Our study showed an interesting results with esophageal atresia being the most common type (n = 16, 32%) after that jejunoileal (n = 11, 22%). Both genders were affected almost equally with no gender predominance. Twenty-six (51%) of the cases were having below normal birth weight (odds ratio [OR] =0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI] =0.03-0.2). One mother of the control groups had cesarean section in comparison to 15 mothers from the cases (OR 42.4; 95% CI 5.4-333.09). The study also showed that there is no correlation between the number of pregnancies and the risk of atresia (P = 0.798) (OR 0.9; 95% CI 0.72-1.3).
Conclusion: Unlike western countries, esophageal atresia was the most common type with no gender differences. Interestingly, both groups had high rates of low birth weight.
Keywords: Atresia; bowel atresia; intestinal atresia; risk factors; short outcome.