Retrospective Study of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Cairo University Pediatric Hospital

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is an inflammatory bowel disease of neonates and remains one of the most common gastrointestinal emergencies in newborn infants. It has an incidence rate of 1%-5% for all newborns admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), with a prevalence of 7%-14% of very low birth weight infants (VLBW between 500-1500g). Advances in obstetric and neonatal care have improved survival rate for smaller, more immature infants, and as more VLBW preterm infants survive the neonatal period, the population at risk for NEC increases. NEC is suspected from clinical presentation and confirmed by radiological and laboratory studies. This study includes all neonates admitted to NICU of Cairo University Pediatric Hospital over the period of three years from January 2007-December 2009 (3158 cases). Our study includes 48 patients with NEC represente 4d 1.5% of total neonatal admissions. Prematurity, formula feeding, RDS, PDA, asphyxia, umbilical catheterization, H2 blocker and maternal preeclampsia have been identified as risk factors for development of NEC in our study. In present work, the mortality rate is high, this can be explained on the basis that our NICU being a purely referral center. It is exposed to infants in severe forms of the disease.