[Necrotizing enterocolitis in the preterm infant: etiopathogenic considerations].
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NE) represents the most frequent gastrointestinal emergency encountered in neonatal intensive care units. This necrotic-inflammatory bowel disease affects primarily premature patients and it is recorded as an important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The NE aetiology seems to be multifactorial: prematurity, enteral feeding, hypoxia and micro-organisms toxicity are registered as the most important risk factors, able to trigger the phlogistic and necrotic way at the basis of necrotizing enterocolitis. Despite the NE first report was in the past century, the correct pathogenic sequence of this neonatal disease is still hypothetical.
Scuola di Gastroenterologia, Dipartimento di Medicina Interna, Scienze Endocrino-Metaboliche e Biochimica, Università, Siena.
Michele
M
Pellegrini
Nancy
N
Lagrasta
Javier
J
Campos Serna
Covadonga
C
Garcìa Garcìa
Giuseppe
G
Marzocca
D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D020345:Enterocolitis, Necrotizing / Q000209:etiology*; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000150:complications; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012307:Risk Factors