Características de recién nacidos con enterocolitis necrotizante en un hospital universitario de tercer nivel en Colombia

introduction: necrotizing enterocolitis (nec) is, over all newborn surgical afflictions, the most deathly, representing the main gi problem in neonatal intensive care units (nicu) and a medical/surgical emergency in which early diagnosis and opportune treatment may diminish surgical needs and mortality. objective: to describe the features of patients with nec attended at a third-level hospital nicu in the city of cali in 2006. method and materials: we conducted a pilot descriptive retrospective study that included 32 clinical records of newborns in the nicu (named cirena) from the hospital universitario del valle (huv) with nec diagnosis. finally, we made a descriptive analysis of the data by using the epi-info statistics program. results: in 2006, 1555 newborns were admitted to huv-cirena and 32 (2%) of them were diagnosed with nec, a percentage that is similar to that of other countries; half of which weighed less than 1500 grams and only three pregnant women had adequate prenatal care, 17(53.1%) of these newborns were female and 15(46.9%) were male. conclusions: although the majority of nec cases occurs in premature and/or very low weight children, it is outstanding the number of full-term newborns, either on gestational age and weight, that developed early nec. there is a visible relationship among low birth weight, prematurity, and the development of nec, especially in the higher degrees of the disease, where the tendency is the presentation of late nec.