Congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

The incidence of congenital adrenal hyperplasia in Saudi Arabia and the frequency of the carrier rate are not well known. Both figures should be high, considering the commonness of first-degree consanguinity in this part of the world. We present 25 cases of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, most of them due to a defect of the 21 hydroxylase enzyme, diagnosed and followed over three years at Suleimania Children's Hospital in Riyadh. There were ten boys and 15 girls exhibiting all degrees of masculinization, mostly Grade III (53%) and Grade IV and V (13.3% each). The degree of masculinization of the external genitalia in the girls (46XX) was sufficiently pronounced in seven patients to lead to sex identity errors at birth. This aggravated the psychological reactions in the families, particularly before the surgical correction. The frequency of neonatal deaths in the patients' families related to a similar disorder was high (12%). The mean age at onset of the salt-losing crises in affected infants was 9 days in females and 25 days in males and this was the most common clinical presentation of the disorder (80%). Systemic neonatal screening and intrauterine diagnosis in at risk families must be done to provide hormonal intervention and thus prevent the formation of ambiguous genitalia and avoid the resulting plastic surgery that must be performed in female patients.