Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Fetal nutrition
- 2 Determinants of intrauterine growth
- 3 Aspects of fetoplacental nutrition in intrauterine growth restriction and macrosomia
- 4 Postnatal growth in preterm infants
- 5 Thermal regulation and effects on nutrient substrate metabolism
- 6 Development and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract
- 7 Metabolic programming as a consequence of the nutritional environment during fetal and the immediate postnatal periods
- 8 Nutrient regulation in brain development: glucose and alternate fuels
- 9 Water and electrolyte balance in newborn infants
- 10 Amino acid metabolism and protein accretion
- 11 Carbohydrate metabolism and glycogen accretion
- 12 Energy requirements and protein-energy metabolism and balance in preterm and term infants
- 13 The role of essential fatty acids in development
- 14 Vitamins
- 15 Normal bone and mineral physiology and metabolism
- 16 Disorders of mineral, vitamin D and bone homeostasis
- 17 Trace minerals
- 18 Iron
- 19 Conditionally essential nutrients: choline, inositol, taurine, arginine, glutamine and nucleotides
- 20 Intravenous feeding
- 21 Enteral amino acid and protein digestion, absorption, and metabolism
- 22 Enteral carbohydrate assimilation
- 23 Enteral lipid digestion and absorption
- 24 Minimal enteral nutrition
- 25 Milk secretion and composition
- 26 Rationale for breastfeeding
- 27 Fortified human milk for premature infants
- 28 Formulas for preterm and term infants
- 29 Differences between metabolism and feeding of preterm and term infants
- 30 Gastrointestinal reflux
- 31 Hypo- and hyperglycemia and other carbohydrate metabolism disorders
- 32 The infant of the diabetic mother
- 33 Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: clinical observations and pathophysiology
- 34 Neonatal short bowel syndrome
- 35 Acute respiratory failure
- 36 Nutrition for premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- 37 Nutrition in infants with congenital heart disease
- 38 Nutrition therapies for inborn errors of metabolism
- 39 Nutrition in the neonatal surgical patient
- 40 Nutritional assessment of the neonate
- 41 Methods of measuring body composition
- 42 Methods of measuring energy balance: calorimetry and doubly labelled water
- 43 Methods of measuring nutrient substrate utilization using stable isotopes
- 44 Postnatal nutritional influences on subsequent health
- 45 Growth outcomes of preterm and very low birth weight infants
- 46 Post-hospital nutrition of the preterm infant
- Index
- References
33 - Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: clinical observations and pathophysiology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Fetal nutrition
- 2 Determinants of intrauterine growth
- 3 Aspects of fetoplacental nutrition in intrauterine growth restriction and macrosomia
- 4 Postnatal growth in preterm infants
- 5 Thermal regulation and effects on nutrient substrate metabolism
- 6 Development and physiology of the gastrointestinal tract
- 7 Metabolic programming as a consequence of the nutritional environment during fetal and the immediate postnatal periods
- 8 Nutrient regulation in brain development: glucose and alternate fuels
- 9 Water and electrolyte balance in newborn infants
- 10 Amino acid metabolism and protein accretion
- 11 Carbohydrate metabolism and glycogen accretion
- 12 Energy requirements and protein-energy metabolism and balance in preterm and term infants
- 13 The role of essential fatty acids in development
- 14 Vitamins
- 15 Normal bone and mineral physiology and metabolism
- 16 Disorders of mineral, vitamin D and bone homeostasis
- 17 Trace minerals
- 18 Iron
- 19 Conditionally essential nutrients: choline, inositol, taurine, arginine, glutamine and nucleotides
- 20 Intravenous feeding
- 21 Enteral amino acid and protein digestion, absorption, and metabolism
- 22 Enteral carbohydrate assimilation
- 23 Enteral lipid digestion and absorption
- 24 Minimal enteral nutrition
- 25 Milk secretion and composition
- 26 Rationale for breastfeeding
- 27 Fortified human milk for premature infants
- 28 Formulas for preterm and term infants
- 29 Differences between metabolism and feeding of preterm and term infants
- 30 Gastrointestinal reflux
- 31 Hypo- and hyperglycemia and other carbohydrate metabolism disorders
- 32 The infant of the diabetic mother
- 33 Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: clinical observations and pathophysiology
- 34 Neonatal short bowel syndrome
- 35 Acute respiratory failure
- 36 Nutrition for premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- 37 Nutrition in infants with congenital heart disease
- 38 Nutrition therapies for inborn errors of metabolism
- 39 Nutrition in the neonatal surgical patient
- 40 Nutritional assessment of the neonate
- 41 Methods of measuring body composition
- 42 Methods of measuring energy balance: calorimetry and doubly labelled water
- 43 Methods of measuring nutrient substrate utilization using stable isotopes
- 44 Postnatal nutritional influences on subsequent health
- 45 Growth outcomes of preterm and very low birth weight infants
- 46 Post-hospital nutrition of the preterm infant
- Index
- References
Summary
Establishment of appropriate enteral feedings in the premature infant is a frequent cause of concern in the neonatal intensive care unit due to the dreaded complication of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), an ischemic and inflammatory necrosis of bowel that results in significant mortality, longer lengths of stay, increased costs, and possibly increased risk for abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes. The disease incidence varies between centers and across continents, but ranges between 3% and 28% with an average of approximately 8%–10% in infants born weighing less than 1500 g. Despite significant advances in neonatal care, the morbidity and mortality resulting from NEC has not improved over the last three decades, with recent reports of NEC mortality ranging between 10%–30%.
Clinical presentation
The disease presents clinically in premature neonates with variable symptoms of intestinal bleeding, emesis, abdominal distension, lethargy, and apnea and bradycardia, and signs of abdominal tenderness, thrombocytopenia, metabolic acidosis, tachycardia, respiratory failure, and, if severe, shock. The diagnosis is typically made by the identification of pneumatosis intestinalis (air in the bowel wall) on abdominal radiograph, although in some cases of NEC, commonly in un-fed patients, pneumatosis is not appreciated. In these situations, NEC may be diagnosed surgically or pathologically, or in some instances by ultrasound appreciation of portal venous air. Bell and colleagues suggested a classification scheme that differentiates feeding intolerance (stage I) from true NEC (stage II) and advanced NEC (stage III with peritonitis and/or perforation).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Neonatal Nutrition and Metabolism , pp. 482 - 491Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006