Clinical Predictors of Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation vs Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Extremely and Very Low Birth Weight Neonates

Spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) are distinct disease processes associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Initial treatment, laparotomy (LP) versus peritoneal drainage (PD), is disease specific however it can be difficult to distinguish these diagnoses preoperatively. We investigated clinical characteristics associated with each diagnosis and constructed a scoring algorithm for accurate preoperative diagnosis.