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Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an important complication for premature newborns.
Infants who survive NEC have a greater possibility of poor long-term physiological and neurodevelopmental
growth.
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The objective of this paper is to give a comprehensive description of the long-term consequences of
NEC. Despite the rise in incidence of NEC there is a scarcity of data regarding long-term outcomes
of these infants that can be divided into two groups. The first group includes gastrointestinal complications
that could occur in relation to the bowel disease, the surgical treatment and quality of the
residual bowel. These complications are strictures and short bowel syndrome (SBS).
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Intestinal strictures are a common occurance after recovery from NEC that should be investigated
with a contrast study in case of suspicious clinical findings of bowel obstruction or before reversal
ostomy. After this diagnostic investigation, if a stricture is detected in a symptomatic patient, resection
of the affected loop of bowel with anastomosis is required. SBS is the result of a massive intestinal
resection or of a dysfunctional residual bowel and it can occur in a fourth of patients affected
by NEC.
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The second group includes neurodevelopmental impairment and growth.
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Infants with NEC is a population of patients at high risk for adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes
whose cause can be multifactorial and linked to perinatal events, severity of disease, surgical treatment
and its complications and hospitalization. Understanding the morbidity of NEC with a longterm
follow-up would aid neonatologists and pediatric surgeons to make informed decisions in providing
care for these patients. Further research on this topic is needed.
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Neurodevelopmental outcomes of patients after NEC recovery have not been widely reported.
OP18 Long-term outcome after first intestinal resection in paediatric-onset Crohn's disease: A population-based study
