Maternal cocaine use and genitourinary tract malformations.

A specific fetal disruption syndrome associated with maternal cocaine use has not as yet been documented. In the first 23 pregnancies evaluated in our program for chemically dependent women, one infant with prune belly syndrome and one infant with hypospadias were delivered to cocaine-using women. In the present study, all infants delivered in our program received a renal ultrasound at 2-3 days of life. Fifty infants born to cocaine-using women (group I) and 30 born to polydrug, noncocaine-using women (group II) were evaluated. The two groups of women were similar for age, gravidity, and race. Mean birth weight of the infants in the two groups was similar. Seven infants in group I demonstrated genitourinary tract malformations while there were no infants with such malformations in group II. It is hypothesized that the vasoconstrictive effects of cocaine could explain the abnormalities of the genitourinary tract found in the cocaine-exposed infants.