Current Outcome of Antenatally Diagnosed Cystic Lung Disease
Mark Davenport, S.A. WARNE, Sebastiano Cacciaguerra, Shailesh Patel, Anne Greenough, K. H. Nicolaides
Abstract
This chapter describes the outcomes of 67 fetuses with some kind of cystic lung abnormality antenatally diagnosed from January 1995 to July 2001. The Adzick classification was used, and these abnormalities were dominantly macrocystic; microcystic and mixed. A small number had had fetal intervention. Hydrops was present in five of the fetuses were born alive with one termination of pregnancy and two intrauterine deaths – all three having shown features of hydrops. Antenatal detection of significant pulmonary pathology was first described in the 1980s, and early series were bleak with reports of a high rate of associated major anomalies and in utero deaths, with poor survival overall. Some physicians were even recommending elective terminations. This series was for a time the largest published single-centre experience of antenatally detected cystic lung lesions and by contrast showed a much improved and more optimistic prognosis, with very favourable outcomes in the overwhelming majority.