Intestinal obstruction due to colonic stricture following neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis

Abstract

After resolution of acute necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), six of 31 surviving infants (19%) developed late ischemic stricture of the colon. Stricture occurred after both medical and surgical treatment for NEC, and in both functional and defunctionalized bowel. In medically-treated infants, the symptoms of intestinal obstruction usually began six to eight weeks after NEC. Surgically-treated infants developed asymptomatic strictures distal to an enterostomy. Barium enema was the appropriate diagnostic study for both groups. Operative management consisted of segmental colonic resection with frequent use of enterostomy. On histopathologic examination, resected strictures showed a spectrum of the reparative process after intestinal ischemia, ranging from obliterative scar to near-normal colon. Because delayed diagnosis led to the death of one of our infants, we recommend a barium enema for early diagnosis of stricture about six weeks after NEC, whether initial treatment was medical or surgical. In a recent infant, two colonic strictures were thus diagnosed and resected prior to development of symptoms of intestinal obstruction.