Study Considers Link Between Skull Deformity, In Vitro Fertilization

FRIDAY, Oct. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Among infants and children with the skull deformity known as craniosynostosis, 4 percent were conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to a study published online Sept. 20 in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery.

Abdoljalil Kalantar-Hormozi, M.D., from the Medical College of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science in Tehran, Iran, and colleagues reviewed records of 200 patients (ages 1 month to 7 years) with nonsyndromic craniosynostosis who underwent surgery in a tertiary children’s hospital between 2010 and 2019 to evaluate the prevalence of IVF use related to infants born with craniosynostosis.

The researchers report that 43 percent of patients were plagiocephalic, 39 percent trigonocephalic, 8.5 percent scaphocephalic, 8 percent brachiocephalic, and 1.5 percent were mixed. Clomiphene citrate was received by nine patients, and eight mothers had become pregnant under IVF, with all using clomiphene citrate for ovulation stimulation. Three of the offspring of mothers who became pregnant through IVF were trigonocephalic, and five offspring were plagiocephalic.

“Without a control group, we are not able to report the statistical results confirming or denying a link between craniosynostosis and infertility treatment,” the authors write. “Further studies with a broader statistical community are suggested in this regard.”

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