Introduction: Between 2019–2021, facing public concern, a scientific expert committee (SEC) reanalysed suspected clusters of transverse upper limb reduction defects (TULRD) in three administrative areas in France, where initial investigations had not identified any risk exposure. We share here the national approach we developed for managing suspicious clusters of the same group of congenital anomalies occurring in several areas. Methods: The SEC analysed the medical records of TURLD suspected cases and performed spatiotemporal analyses on confirmed cases. If the cluster was statistically significant and included at least three cases, the SEC reviewed exposures obtained from questionnaires, environmental databases, and a survey among farmers living near to cases’ homes concerning their plant product use. Results: After case re-ascertainment, no statistically significant cluster was observed in the first administrative areas. In the second area, a cluster of four children born in two nearby towns over two years was confirmed, but as with the initial investigations, no exposure to a known risk factor explaining the number of cases in excess was identified. In the third area, a cluster including just two cases born the same year in the same town was confirmed. Discussion: Our experience highlights that in the event of suspicious clusters occurring in different areas of a country, a coordinated and standardised approach should be preferred.

简介：2019 年至 2021 年间，面对公众的关注，科学专家委员会 (SEC) 重新分析了法国三个行政区域的疑似上肢横向复位缺陷 (TULRD) 群，初步调查并未发现任何风险暴露。我们在此分享我们为管理多个地区发生的同一组先天性异常的可疑集群而开发的国家方法。方法： SEC 分析了 TURLD 疑似病例的医疗记录，并对确诊病例进行了时空分析。如果该集群具有统计显着性并且至少包含三个案例，美国证券交易委员会将审查从问卷、环境数据库以及对居住在案例家附近的农民进行的有关其植物产品使用情况的调查中获得的暴露情况。结果：病例重新确定后，在首批行政区域内未观察到具有统计学意义的聚集性病例。在第二个地区，确认了两年多来在附近两个城镇出生的四名儿童的聚集，但与初步调查一样，没有发现暴露于解释病例数量过多的已知风险因素。在第三个地区，确认了一个聚集性病例，其中仅包括同一城镇的同年出生的两名病例。讨论：我们的经验强调，如果一个国家的不同地区发生可疑集群，应首选协调和标准化的方法。