Dr. Faten Alawaysheh

Senior Consultant Neonatologist MRCPCH (Ireland)

Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC)

Queen Rania Children Hospital Royal Medical service

NEC Is a devastating and destructive intestinal necrosis syndrome of the immature intestine in newborns.

The incidence of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is increasing and outcomes in this condition have shown no improvement in recent years despite advancements in neonatal intensive care and improvements in outcome in a number of other conditions that effect premature infants.

The incidence of NEC inversely correlates with gestational age at birth, with a higher incidence in babies born at lower gestational ages It is multifactorial resulting from complex interactions between immaturity, mucosal injury, and bacterial dysbiosis.

Early clinical signs are usually vague and nonspecific . laboratory finding are often used to help establish the diagnosis of NEC but of themselves are not of sufficient sensitivity, specificity, or accuracy to be of high diagnostic value studies have shown significant variability in the interpretation of abdominal radiographs of infants with suspected NEC.

Bowel ultrasound is a modality that is becoming of major interest in the evaluation of bowel injury in neonates.

NEC is a very difficult disease to treat because no therapy or intervention definitively slows or stops the progression of the disease process.

NEC prevention strategies include human milk diet, implementation of feeding protocols, transfusion protocols, probiotics and antibiotic stewardship