title: Fulminant necrotizing enterocolitis in a multihospital healthcare system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A subset of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) cases is fulminant, characterized by rapid progression to death with massive bowel necrosis found at laparotomy or autopsy. We sought to identify and report all such cases in a multihospital healthcare system during the past 9 years and to characterize this entity using case-control methodologies.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a multicentered, cross-sectional, historic cohort study conducted using Intermountain Healthcare hospital patient data. All neonates who died of NEC within 48 h of onset, during 2001 to 2009, were compared with two matched control groups: (1) demographically matched controls who developed non-fulminant NEC, (2) demographically matched controls that did not develop NEC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During this period, 2 71 327 live births occurred in the Intermountain Healthcare hospitals. Of these, 318 had a diagnosis of NEC (Bell stage ≥II). Also during this period, 205 other neonates were transferred into an Intermountain hospital for treatment of NEC. Of these 523 NEC cases, 35 (6.7%) had a fulminant course. Compared with the non-fulminant cases, the fulminant group were born at lower weight (1088±545 vs 1652±817 g, P=0.000) and earlier gestational age (27.5±3.3 vs 31.1±4.4 weeks, P=0.000), and were more likely to have: (1) radiographic evidence of portal venous air (P=0.000), (2) hematocrit <22% (P=0.000), (3) increase in feeding volume >20 ml/kg/day (P=0.003), (4) immature to total (I/T) neutrophil ratio >0.5 (P=0.005), (5) blood lymphocyte count <4000/μl (P=0.018), (6) an increase in concentration of human milk fortifier within 48 h before developing NEC (P=0.020).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Portal venous air, anemia, rapid feeding escalation, a high I/T neutrophil ratio, a low lymphocyte count and recent increases in fortifier may all be associated with fulminant NEC.
authors.affiliation: Women and Newborns Program, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT 84403, USA.
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Baer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Besner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilkes
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Wiedmeier
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gerday
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D020345:Enterocolitis, Necrotizing / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D005527:Food, Fortified; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D041943:Infant Formula; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007511:Ischemia / Q000150:complications*; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D065666:Mesenteric Ischemia; D008895:Milk, Human; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009504:Neutrophils; D012307:Risk Factors; D014589:Utah / Q000453:epidemiology; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000150:complications*