title: Intestinal obstruction in neonates: causes of death.
abstract: Infectious complications such a peritonitis, septicaemia and pneumonia are the most important factors causing postoperative death in surgery of intestinal obstruction in children. In a series of 237 patients with intestinal obstruction with 21 fatalities, the percentage of deaths due to infection was 85.7%. In 1967 to 1976, 259.301 children died in Germany, among them 1541 suffering from intestinal obstruction (0.6%); that means 3.1% of the 49.540 patients who died of intestinal obstruction were children. The mortality of intestinal obstruction in infancy and childhood had fallen to one third of the original during this period, but the mortality in newborn infants fell only by 50%. This correlates with the decreasing birth rate, so that the lower death rate due to intestinal obstruction seems to be explained by a lower number of neonates. The literature shows that relative mortality (20%) from intestinal obstruction in the newborn has, however, remained constant during the last 20 years.
mesh_terms: D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000401:mortality*; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality*; D012189:Retrospective Studies