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.