Prenatal diagnosis by amniocentesis in 800 pregnancies.

Prenatal diagnoses by amniocentesis have been made in 800 pregnancies at the Genetics Division of the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. This experience has indicated that the amniocentesis procedure is safe and highly accurate. Amniocentesis was not associated with significant morbidity or mortality for either infant or mother. The observed complications are assumed to be related to the high-risk nature of these pregnancies, the patients having been selected primarily on the basis of advanced maternal age or a previous abnormal child. The needle puncture marks, which occurred in 2.4 percent of the live births, resulted in no serious developmental or cosmetic effects to the infants. No errors in cytogenetic diagnosis are known to have occurred in this series.