Surgical findings during exploratory laparotomy are closely related to mortality in premature infants with necrotising enterocolitis.

Aim: This study investigated whether a correlation existed between surgical findings during the first laparotomy for necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) and death and, or, disease progression.

Methods: We included infants admitted within one day of birth to our tertiary neonatal department at Rigshospitalet, Denmark, from 2006 to 2015, who underwent a laparotomy for acute NEC. They were classified according to the locality and extent of intestinal necrosis by a paediatric surgeon, based on the surgical findings.

Poor validity of the routine diagnosis of necrotising enterocolitis in preterm infants at discharge.

Aim: Necrotising enterocolitis contributes considerably to the mortality of preterm infants, but most questions remain unsolved after decades of extensive research. This Danish study investigated the validity of necrotising enterocolitis diagnoses at discharge according to Bell's staging system.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective single-centre cohort study of 714 preterm infants with a gestational age of less than 30 weeks born in 2006-2013.

Probiotics to prevent necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm infants.

Introduction: Meta-analyses of randomised trials have shown that probiotics reduce the risk of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants. However, the generalisability of these results, particularly for the most preterm infants, remains unresolved. Hence, we wanted to evaluate the benefit of implementing prophylactic use of probiotics as standard care in infants younger than 30 weeks of gestation.

[Neonates can also suffer from appendicitis].

Appendicitis is a rare clinical entity in neonates. Preterm and male neonates have the greatest risk. In most of the reported cases appendicitis in neonates is seen as a complication of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

[Prepyloric antral web--a rare cause of gastric outlet obstruction].

A case of gastric outlet obstruction secondary to prepyloric antral web in a four-year-old boy with cerebral pareses is reported. Routine roentgenographic examination was initially misinterpreted as duodenal obstruction. Prepyloric antral web was suspected by subsequent endoscopy and was confirmed by operation.