Surgery is safe in very low birthweight infants with necrotizing enterocolitis.

The aim of this study was to determine how the operative event itself affects very low birthweight (VLBW) infants (< 1500 g) with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) undergoing surgery, and to try to identify preventable factors leading to perioperative morbidity and mortality. Eighty-five VLBW infants developed NEC during a 6-year period; 34 of those required emergent celiotomies. Data were collected retrospectively from hospital charts available on 33 infants.

Proctocolitis in exclusively breast-fed infants.

Unlabelled: We present nine exclusively breast-fed, full-term infants with mild rectal bleeding due to proctocolitis. The mean age at the onset of symptoms was 5 weeks (range 1-8 weeks). Rectosigmoidoscopic examination was performed in all the children within 2 days after admission, showing inflammatory changes such as oedematous mucosa with petechial haemorrhages.

Paraumbilical intestinal remnant, closed abdominal wall, and midgut loss in a neonate.

A newborn with a mummified right paraumbilical intestinal remnant, closed abdominal wall, and loss of most of the midgut raises important questions concerning embryonic abdominal wall closure and the intrauterine events leading to gastroschisis and "congenital" short gut syndrome.

Urethral prolapse: an often misdiagnosed cause of urogenital bleeding in girls.

Urethral prolapse is an uncommon disorder in girls, usually presenting as "vaginal" bleeding. This retrospective chart review focuses on the high rate of misdiagnosis of urethral prolapse and describes treatment modalities based on 24 patients seen at a major children's hospital during an 11-year span. Their mean age was 4.

Impaired survival and growth in immunosuppressed young rats with lethal short gut syndrome and a small bowel transplant: an effect of cyclosporine.

Neonates and growing individuals have increased nutritional demands as compared with adults. To determine the functional ability of an intestinal graft to allow survival and growth, an otherwise lethal short gut model should be used (resection of both the entire small bowel and the cecum). In this study the authors investigated the survival and growth in young rats (80 to 125 g) with this lethal short gut syndrome (SGS) and either syngeneic or allogeneic segmental small bowel transplantation (SBTx).