[Necrotizing enterocolitis in the preterm infant: etiopathogenic considerations].

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NE) represents the most frequent gastrointestinal emergency encountered in neonatal intensive care units. This necrotic-inflammatory bowel disease affects primarily premature patients and it is recorded as an important cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. The NE aetiology seems to be multifactorial: prematurity, enteral feeding, hypoxia and micro-organisms toxicity are registered as the most important risk factors, able to trigger the phlogistic and necrotic way at the basis of necrotizing enterocolitis.