Necrotizing Entercolitis - Neonatal Disease Impacting Smaller Infants

An established medical researcher and practitioner, Dr. Brian Gilchrist most recently served as chief of pediatric surgery at NYU-Winthrop University. Extensively published in his field, Dr. Brian Gilchrist edited a widely utilized book on the neonatal disease necrotizing enterocolitis.

Associated with premature infants, necrotizing enterocolitis occurs in approximately seven percent of infants with a birth weight of between one and three pounds. The associated death rate is between 20 and 30 percent, with those infants who receive surgery having the highest risk of mortality.

Necrotizing enterocolitis centers on a highly immunoreactive intestine that causes inflammation. This results in death of part of the bowel, which can systematically impact distant organs beyond the gastrointestinal tract, such as the brain. Infants who recover from necrotizing enterocolitis are susceptible to neurodevelopmental delays and microcephaly.

Traditionally, treatment often involves enteral feeding, via a gastrointestinal tract feeding tube. Unfortunately, this is linked with the development of necrotizing enterocolitis. This has resulted in protocol involving extended periods of intravenous nutrition, which causes longer infant hospital stays, and it also increases the possibility of infectious complications.