Meconium ileus-it is time to act now!
Meconium ileus is a life-threatening presentation of neonates with cystic fibrosis (CF). Notwithstanding, today the long-term prognosis of such patients is comparable to that of CF patients not diagnosed in screening programs and not suffering from this insult,1-3 as confirmed by the article of Johnson et al. in this issue of Pediatric Pulmonology. Good news then for CF patients and CF caretakers, working with the modern interdisciplinary setting of neonatal intensive care, including radiology, anesthesiology, and pediatric surgery experts. State of the art management of life-threatening neonatal ileus during this fragile early phase of life obviously balances all disadvantages associated with neonatal ileus and provides an outcome not different from that in CF patients without meconium ileus, but diagnosed later during early childhood.
Kappler
Matthias
M
Children's University Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany. kappler@med.uni-muenchen.de
Griese
Matthias
M