Counseling and care for the pregnancy complicated by gastroschisis

Twenty-one consecutive cases of fetal and neonatal gastroschisis were retrospectively reviewed. There was 100% survival if major nonintestinal malformations did not coexist; however, 28.6% of these patients had other major malformations and 66% of them died. There were significantly fewer small for gestational age infants if the defect was diagnosed prenatally (20% versus 75%, p less than 0.003). There was a 60% cesarean delivery rate in prenatally diagnosed infants and 0% if diagnosis occurred at delivery (p less than 0.01).