Perioperative support, not volume, is necessary to optimize outcomes in surgical management of necrotizing enterocolitis

Abstract Background This study examines the relationship between hospital volume of surgical cases for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and patient outcomes. Methods A retrospective cross-sectional review was performed using the HCUP SID for California from 2007 to 2011. Patients with NEC who underwent surgery were identified using ICD-9CM codes. Risk-adjusted models were constructed with mixed-effects logistic regression using patient and demographic covariates. Results 23 hospitals with 618 patients undergoing NEC-related surgical intervention were included. Overall mortality rate was 22.5%. There were no significant differences in the number of NICU beds (p = 0.135) or NICU intensivists (p = 0.469) between high and low volume hospitals. Following risk adjustment, no difference in mortality rate was observed between high and low volume hospitals respectively (24.0% vs. 20.3%, p = 0.555). Conclusions Our observation that neonates with NEC treated at low-volume centers have no increased risk of mortality may be explained by similar availability of NICU and intensivists resources across hospitals.