What Is Edward's Syndrome?

Edward's syndrome is a severe if very rare (less than 1/8000 of live births) chromosone abnormality.  Chromosones are packages of DNA that are inherited  (23 chromosones from each parent).  In Edward's syndrome there is an extra copy of chromosome 18 (trisomy-18).  In most cases the prognosis for babies with this genetic defect is very poor.

Trisomy-18 leads to severe mental and growth retardation, abnormalities in the heart and other organs, malformed features including a small chin, low ears, cleft palate, a webbed neck, incorrect limb growth and deformed hands and feet.  It is rare for babies with this condition to live longer than 6 months, and virtually all die before reaching one year old.

The incidence of Edward's syndrome increases slightly with maternal age. It can be screened for from about 15 weeks in pregnancy by amniocentesis (sampling the amniotic fluid).  Cases of children with Mosaic Edward's syndrome (where some but not all parts of the body are affected) surviving in to early adulthood have been documented.