Edwards Syndrome: the main symptoms and ways of treatment

Edwards syndrome refers to chronic diseases. It is encouraging that in medical practice this pathology is extremely rare, approximately one in 6,600 newborn live babies. And in a special group of risk there are small girls, since in 80% of the cases, the females turned out to be ill.

Edwards Syndrome: causes.

If we talk about the reasons, then at the moment there is no consensus. Scientists have advanced various theories, but none of them have yet been formally proven. Some believe that the appearance of abnormal chromosomes in the genotype is affected by the environment, namely, unfavorable living conditions, various emissions of chemicals into the atmosphere, contamination of water by sewage plants, factories, etc. Other scientists argue that the blame for all the infection in the mother's body, which is activated during pregnancy and led to a mutation. It is established that the age category of a woman who expects a child is important. After all, it is in adult patients who are more likely to have children who are suffering from hereditary syndromes. In most cases, the disease is inherited, from an infected mother.

Unfortunately, children with this diagnosis die at an early age. A characteristic feature of the syndrome is that the child is born on time, but his weight is suspiciously small. In addition, there is a decrease in activity, and subsequently there is a significant slowdown in the development of the child, both physical and psychological. Girls with such a disease usually live no more than six months, in very rare cases they live a year, but no more. But with the male babies, there is a fatal outcome in a few weeks.

Edwards syndrome: symptoms.

The disease is quite bright, it can be recognized by physical signs. For example, the jaws are underdeveloped, unnaturally low set, a little deformed and asymmetric in the auricle, and the chin looks somehow skewed. Characteristic is the location of the eyes: they are too low set. All parts of the body are deformed literally: the feet and brushes look unnatural, the head is visually enlarged in size. At the same time, the fingers are shortened. Edwards syndrome causes muscle atrophy, so any movement is significantly slowed down. The psychological development of the child does not lag behind.

It is worth knowing one more interesting feature of the disease. Small handles are tightly clenched into fists, but the middle finger is like above all the others, trying to block them. At more careful research the doctor can find out pathology of development of cardiovascular and pulmonary system, kidneys, and in some cases there is a hernia.

At an early stage, specialists diagnose Edwards syndrome based on external signs, since ultrasound often does not reveal any anomalies in the development of the body. Sometimes it is possible to notice an underdevelopment of one of the umbilical arteries or a small amount of the placenta. If we talk about treatment, then the outlook is disappointing. In most cases, children die in infancy, it is very rare to live to a teenage.

No modern means can change the human genotype. That is why the only thing a doctor can do is to maintain the viability of a person and to eliminate the symptomatic manifestations of the disease. And remember: despite the fact that Edwards syndrome is incurable, you should not give up. In this case, parents have only one way out - to enjoy every day spent with the baby and believe. Often, faith can significantly prolong the life of a seemingly incurable patient.