Surgical Necrotizing Enterocolitis and Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation Lead to Severe Growth Failure in Infants

We aimed to determine the incidence of growth failure in infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) and whether initial laparotomy versus peritoneal drainage (PD) impacted the likelihood of growth failure. Infants with surgical NEC and SIP have high mortality, and most have neurodevelopmental impairment and poor growth. Existing literature on growth outcomes for these infants is limited. This is a preplanned secondary study of the Necrotizing Enterocolitis Surgery Trial dataset. The primary outcome was growth failure (Z-score for weight 2) in NEC infants (P=0.2). This first ever prospective study of growth outcomes in infants with surgical NEC or SIP demonstrates that growth failure is very common, especially in infants with NEC, and persists at 18-22 months.