In 2004, hospitals spent $2.6 billion to treat birth defects, which were responsible for more than 139,000 hospitalizations that year. A new statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality indicates that more than half the cost, about $1.4 billion, went toward treatment for cardiac and circulatory congenital anomalies. These conditions accounted for more than one-third of all hospitalizations for birth defects, and they also had the highest in-hospital mortality rates.
According to the report, hospitalizations for cardiac and circulatory congenital anomalies were up by 28.5% and those for digestive congenital anomalies rose by 25.3% from 1997 to 2004. Pyloric stenosis was the most common primary cause of hospitalizations for birth defects, accounting for 9%.
