Necrotizing enterocolitis x ray：How to use abdominal X

Necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) is a serious life-threatening gastrointestinal disease in the newborn, affecting 1%–5% of neonatal intensive care unit admissions and up to 10% of neonates under 1500 g.1 The incidence and severity of NEC rise in inverse relationship to gestational maturity. The overall mortality rate in NEC is between 20% and 40%, approaching 50% in extremely low birthweight infants, who require surgical treatment of NEC.2 Approximately 25% of NEC survivors suffer from serious comorbidities including short gut syndrome and neurodevelopment impairment.3–5[1]

The current diagnosis of NEC is based on the modified Bell’s criteria6 7[2] (table 1[3]), which include clinical, pathophysiological and radiological signs, and classify the severity of the disease in stages from I (suspicion of NEC) to IIIB (perforated NEC). The system, based on the surgical description of 48 cases published in 1950, is based on categorical criteria for X-ray ...