Mala et al. European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences www.ejbps.com 66 A REVIEW ON THE ROLE OF VITAMINS IN CONGENITAL VENTRAL ABDOMINAL WALL DEFECTS; OMPHALOCELE AND GASTROSCHISIS Mala Thakur 1 *, Ryanjit Singh Virk 2 , Pritpal Singh Sangha 3 , Alessia Genova 1 , Komal Virk 4 , Snehal Goud 5 , Vaugn De Vera 5 and Pooja Shah 1 1 Xavier University School of Medicine, Woodbury, New York. 2 University of California, Merced, California. 3 Medical University of Lubin, Poland. 4 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California. 5 Saint James School of Medicine, The Valley, Anguilla. Article Received on 12/12/2019 Article Revised on 01/01/2020 Article Accepted on 22/01/2020 I. BACKGROUND Gastroschisis and omphalocele are congenital ventral abdominal wall defects which were first described as one entity in the 16 th century. After several years of research Moore and Stokes in 1953 described it as two separate abdominal wall defects. Later in 1963 Duhamel described and emphasized their specific pathogenesis and clinical presentation. In recent years it has been identified that omphalocele is more common than gastroschisis. Omphaloceles have been shown to have an association with chromosome abnormality and other birth defects whereas, gastroschisis tends to be an isolated anomaly. Prognosis for infants with gastroschisis tends to be better than omphalocele. The survival rate for omphalocele is 50% to 60% with association to other chronic medical problems. [2] An omphalocele is a midline ventral abdominal wall defect with herniation of abdominal viscera into a membrane-covered sac consisting of an inner peritoneal layer and an outer layer of amnion, while omphalocele involves protruding of the organs out of the abdomen such as liver, intestines, spleen and in the ovaries. During the first early trimester, omphalocele is caused by failure of the physiological herniation to return back to the abdominal cavity. This occurs between 6 to 10 weeks. [3] Due to potential membrane rupture, diagnosis can be difficult to make. Depending upon the position of the defect, it has been categorized into epigastric, central and infraumbiical omphalocele, in which central is the most common form. Many different analysis and studies have shown a strong relation between central type of defect and abnormal karyotype of trisomy 18. [4] The distinctive point is the cord insertion site which is located in the umbilical sac in omphalocele. The estimated prevalence is from 1.0 to 3.8 per 10,000 live births. As compared to gastroschisis, the mothers age did not produce a significant risk factor for omphalocele. Of the other risk factors included were multiparity, pre-pregnancy overweight or obese. There was a marked association seen between infants born with lower birth weight and small for gestational age. [3] Gastroschisis is a ventral abdominal wall defect which causes an opening to the right of the umbilicus. The opening leads to the protrusion of abdominal organs such as intestines, liver and the other proximal organs outside of the body. The location of cord insertion site is paraumbilical in gastroschisis whereas the cord insertion site is present in the umbilical sac in omphalocele. Differentiating point from omphalocele is that there is an ABSTRACT Omphalocele and Gastroschisis are two of the rarest ventral abdominal wall defects which occur due to congenital malformations in utero. These defects fail to fuse the abdominal wall properly, which expose the abdominal organs such as the intestines, stomach, and liver outside the abdominal cavity. Omphalocele is the protrusion of the abdominal contents covered with peritoneum sac through the base of the umbilical cord. [1] It consists of Wharton’s jelly in between both the amnion and peritoneum membrane. Meanwhile, Gastroschisis usually occurs to the right of the belly button and is the protrusion of the abdominal contents without the peritoneum sac covering. [1] Both of these birth defects can be detected prenatally by fetal ultrasonography as well as treated. Despite the technological advances in medicine, the explanation behind exactly why or how these defects occur are unclear. To examine the roles of different vitamins and their possible roles in the prevalence as well as manifestation of ventral abdominal wall defects, related studies were reviewed to find a possible explanation behind these malformations. KEYWORDS: Omphalocele, Gastroschisis, Vitamins, Congenital, Abdominal Wall Defect. *Corresponding Author: Mala Thakur Xavier University School of Medicine, Woodbury, New York. SJIF Impact Factor 6.044 Review Article ejbps, 2020, Volume 7, Issue 2, 66-76. European Journal of Biomedical AND Pharmaceutical sciences http://www.ejbps.com ISSN 2349-8870 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 66-76 Year: 2020