Cardiac and Ophthalmic Malformations and in Utero Exposure to Dilantin

Abstract

The report by Bartoshesky et al¹ prompts me to make the following comments. The authors provided inadequate information to conclude that the infant they described was malformed due to prenatal exposure to diphenylhydantoin. Neither an absence of exposure to other teratogens nor a negative family history permits one to conclude that the ingestion of diphenyihydantoin by the mother caused the infant's malformations. Similarly, the subsequent birth of a normal child after the drug was stopped suggests nothing.