Factors affecting neurodevelopmental outcome following surgical necrotising enterocolitis: a systematic review
link.springer.com shows its articles on its own site.
Read the article on link.springer.com ↗Article · Mar 2024 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
This systematic review examines how surgical treatment approaches for necrotizing enterocolitis impact long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in premature infants. Analysis of 22 studies reveals that extreme prematurity, lower birth weight, peritoneal drain use, and enterostomy creation correlate with worse developmental outcomes, though confounding factors complicate interpretation.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Surgically treated necrotising enterocolitis (sNEC) is associated with significantly worse neurodevelopmental outcomes than that seen in premature infants without NEC. We aim to review the association between factors involved in the surgical treatment of NEC and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcomes to identify potential areas for improvement. The PubMed and Embase databases were interrogated for articles reporting neurodevelopmental outcomes in babies treated surgically for NEC using key terms including: “Infant”, “Necrotising enterocolitis”, “Surgical”, “Neurodevelopmental” and “Outcomes”. The search strategy yielded 1170 articles and after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria 22 studies remained and formed the review. A diverse range of neurodevelopmental outcomes were reported. Extreme prematurity and lower birth weight were associated with worse neurodevelopmental outcomes. The use of peritoneal drains and enterostomies were associated with worse outcomes. Modifications to surgical strategies in NEC may improve neurodevelopmental outcomes but the effect of confounding factors remains unclear. Further large scale studies are required to define the optimum strategies for treating NEC surgically and to develop a core outcome set for research into NEC.