Congenital Birth Defects Contributing to Neonatal Mortality in Hospitalized Newborns

6deaths.This hardly seems possible when congenital defects with reported mortality is the highest in Pakistan 7 ethnicity worldwide.A study is designed as a part of the Neonatal Mortality Audit to estimate the neonatal Abstract Objective: To determine the contribution of congenital defects towards mortality in hospitalized newborn babies.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done at the Nursery of Mayo Hospital Lahore from 2019 to 2023.All electronic entries of neonatal mortality were reviewed.Neonatal Mortality having congenital defects was taken.Data was compiled, tabulated and analyzed on SPSS.Results: 218 neonatal mortalities were reported to have obvious congenital defects, making 7.8% of total neonatal mortality.However, it had no uniform pattern in the last 5 years.It ranged from 12.5% to 5.2% annually.The most common congenital defects in Neonatal Mortality were suspected congenital heart disease (45%), CNS malformations, chiefly spinal dysraphism (16%), urogenital defects including ambiguous genitalia, pulmonary system including Diaphragmatic hernia and Syndromes.The most common primary diseases under treatment at the nursery leading to death in congenital defects were sepsis (43.1%) and Birth Asphyxia (25.7%).Gender variation had no significance on overall neonatal mortality. Conclusion:Congenital defects have significant contribution towards neonatal mortality in the hospital nursery.