25 October is Neural Tube Defect Day. A baby's brain and spinal cord develop from the neural tube; if it does not form properly in the first three months of pregnancy, the result is a range of birth defects of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects. Dr Sudipta Kumar Mukherjee, associate professor of paediatric neurosurgery at the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital in Dhaka, writes in Prothom Alo that, serious as they are, these defects are preventable.
He names two main causes: a deficiency of folic acid, or vitamin B9, in the mother, and environmental pollution. Seventy percent of neural tube defects can be prevented, he writes, and he sets out four pillars for doing so.
The first is pre-pregnancy care: preparing the mother's nutrition at least three months before conception. The second is folic acid: tablets are given free all year at upazila health complexes and primary care centres, and should be taken regularly from three months before conception. The third is food fortification: making it mandatory to add folic acid to flour and other staples. The fourth is nutrition awareness in families and communities, so that vegetables and folate-rich foods become a household habit.
Babies born with anencephaly, an incompletely formed brain, do not survive, Dr Mukherjee says. But conditions such as spina bifida (a split spine), meningocele and encephalocele can be treated by surgery after birth.
Without timely surgery, complications follow. By his figures, about 70 percent of patients develop fluid on the brain (hydrocephalus); 85 percent face urinary infections, dribbling or kidney failure through hydronephrosis or hydroureter; 60 percent may develop bent legs; and in 25 percent a Chiari malformation can push the brain stem down and cause sudden death when breathing stops.
Written by Dr Sudipta Kumar Mukherjee, associate professor of paediatric neurosurgery, National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital, Dhaka.
Photo: Prenatal vitamin tablets (illustrative), Ragesoss / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
Comments
(0)