Introduction

Congenital abdominal wall defects are among the more common neonatal surgical conditions and comprise both gastroschisis and omphalocele. Despite previously being considered similar with overlaps in management, these are two distinctively different conditions.

The term gastroschisis arises from the Greek gastro (abdomen) and schism (cleft) [1]. The initial description is attributed to Calder who wrote about two infants in 1733 [2]. William Fear reported in the British Medical Journal in 1878 what appears to be the first successful treatment of the condition [2]. By the 1940’s there were multiple reports of gastroschisis repairs although survival was not common. The first reported use of a silo was by Schuster in 1967 [3]. Over the past several decades the survival from this anomaly has risen astronomically in the developed nations whereas it remains frequently fatal in large areas of the developing world mostly due to inadequate perinatal health care delivery services [4].

see also Gastroschisis Repair

Content in this topic is referenced in SCORE Gastroschisis overview