{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T03:11:37Z","timestamp":1774926697977,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,1]],"date-time":"2023-03-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1677628800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010661","name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["733001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["733001"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010661","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Little is known about morbidity for children with rare structural congenital anomalies. This European, population-based data-linkage cohort study analysed data on hospitalisations and surgical procedures for 5948 children born 1995\u20132014 with 18 rare structural congenital anomalies from nine EUROCAT registries in five countries. In the first year of life, the median length of stay (LOS) ranged from 3.5 days (anotia) to 53.8 days (atresia of bile ducts). Generally, children with gastrointestinal anomalies, bladder anomalies and Prune-Belly had the longest LOS. At ages 1\u20134, the median LOS per year was \u22643 days for most anomalies. The proportion of children having surgery before age 5 years ranged from 40% to 100%. The median number of surgical procedures for those under 5 years was two or more for 14 of the 18 anomalies and the highest for children with Prune-Belly at 7.4 (95% CI 2.5\u201312.3). The median age at first surgery for children with atresia of bile ducts was 8.4 weeks (95% CI 7.6\u20139.2) which is older than international recommendations. Results from the subset of registries with data up to 10 years of age showed that the need for hospitalisations and surgery continued. The burden of disease in early childhood is high for children with rare structural congenital anomalies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph20054387","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,1]],"date-time":"2023-03-01T02:28:17Z","timestamp":1677637697000},"page":"4387","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Hospital Length of Stay and Surgery among European Children with Rare Structural Congenital Anomalies\u2014A Population-Based Data Linkage Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0430-2594","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ester","family":"Garne","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Lillebaelt Hospital, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, 6000 Kolding, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0462-4761","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joachim","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Population Health Research Institute, St George\u2019s University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7410-8573","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mads","family":"Damkjaer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Lillebaelt Hospital, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, 6000 Kolding, Denmark"},{"name":"Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8813-1835","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisa","family":"Ballardini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IMER Registry, Centre for Clinical and Epidemiological Research, University of Ferrara and Azienda Ospedaliero Universitario di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4858-6456","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Clara","family":"Cavero-Carbonell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rare Diseases Research Unit, Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region, 46020 Valencia, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9816-3144","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessio","family":"Coi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Epidemiology of Rare 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Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4921-1944","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joanne","family":"Given","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Ulster University, Belfast BT15 1AP, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Heino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"THL Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Department of Knowledge Brokers, 00271 Helsinki, Finland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5691-2987","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sue","family":"Jordan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Health & Life Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elizabeth","family":"Limb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Population Health Research Institute, St George\u2019s University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1206-3637","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria","family":"Loane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, Ulster University, Belfast BT15 1AP, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amanda J.","family":"Neville","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IMER Registry, Centre for Clinical and Epidemiological Research, University of Ferrara and Azienda Ospedaliero Universitario di Ferrara, 44121 Ferrara, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3321-9343","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Pierini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Epidemiology of Rare Diseases and Congenital Anomalies, Institute of Clinical Physiology, National 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