Report of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop on Chorionic Villus Sampling and Limb and Other Defects, October 20, 1992.

A Workshop on Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) was convened by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists at the National Institutes of Health on April 17, 1992, to discuss recent reports of an increased occurrence of malformations of the upper and lower limbs and oral structures among CVS-exposed infants. We summarize here the defects described in the CVS-exposed infants, the retrospective reassessments of published studies of the safety of CVS, the prevalence of limb deficiencies in infants not exposed to CVS, the status of the 7-9 week (conception or fertilization age) embryo, and the relevant human and animal experimental models of how CVS might be harmful to the embryo or fetus.