Fetal alcohol syndrome – a literature review

The fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a syndrome of congenital somatic and neurological defects occurring in children of mothers who drank alcohol during their pregnancy. Both ethanol and its main metabolite, acetic aldehyde cause developmental disorders in the fetus. The full spectrum FAS includes characteristic abnormalities in the structure of the facial skeleton, height and weight deficits as well as damage in the structure and functions of the central nervous system. The FAS is an incurable disorder and the most severe one among developmental disorders resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol. In Poland, according to the estimates of Państwowa Agencja Rozwiązywania Problemów Alkoholowych (PARPA) - the State Agency for Prevention of Alcohol-Related Problems, three in a thousand of live births may be affected by the FAS. So far, an alcohol dose that would be safe for the fetus has not been determined and any quantity poses a risk of disturbances in a child’s development.

Aim
This paper is aimed at getting to know better the problems of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, presentation of its symptoms and diagnostic methods based on an analysis of available literature.

Material and methods
A literature review was conducted based on the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source, Polska Bibliografia Lekarska /Polish Medical Bibliography/, with the use of the key words: FAS, fetal alcohol syndrome, facial abnormalities, prenatal alcohol exposure. For analysis, 35 papers published in the years 1968-2016 in the Polish and English languages were selected.

Conclusions
Although for the diagnostics of the fetal alcohol syndrome in Poland a four-digit diagnostic code is applied, the FAS continues to represent a difficult diagnostic challenge and its correct diagnosis requires collaboration of physicians in numerous medical specialties.