Late diagnosis of anorectal malformation: how good is good enough?

Topic overview

Key takeaways

• 15% of anorectal malformations were diagnosed after 72 hours, showing modest improvement from prior 22% national rate but still significant.
• Infants with visible perineal meconium are 6× more likely to have delayed diagnosis (25% vs 4%), often missed on newborn examination.
• Late-diagnosed patients present with obstructive symptoms (distension, vomiting) 22× more often, requiring emergency intervention.
• Perineal examination within 72 hours per UK guidelines remains inadequately performed, particularly for subtle ARM variants.
• Delayed ARM diagnosis increases complication risk and alters clinical management compared to timely detection.

Keywords

Hashtags