Anthony J Munaco, Michelle A Veenstra, Evan Brownie, Logan A Danielson, Kartheek B Nagappala, Michael D Klein
Up to half of all patients with necrotizing enterocolitis require acute surgical treatment. Determining when to operate on these patients can be challenging. Utilizing a combination of clinical and metabolic indicators, we sought to identify the optimal timing of surgical intervention. A retrospective chart review was conducted on patients with necrotizing enterocolitis from 2001 to 2010. Previously validated clinical (abdominal erythema, palpable abdominal mass, hypotension), radiographic (pneumoperitoneum, portal venous gas, fixed bowel loop, severe pneumatosis intestinalis), and laboratory (acidosis, bacteremia, hyponatremia, bandemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia) indicators were assessed for the ability to predict the need for acute surgical intervention as a simple indicator score, based on the sum of the indicators listed above...
May 2015: American Surgeon