NECROTISING ENTEROCOLITIS IN INFANTS- A REVIEW

Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC), the most common syndrome among preterm neonates and Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants, is the cause for the morbidity and mortality in many infants. However initially this was an unknown disease and was recognized as a clinical syndrome in 1960s-1970s when the mortality due to this was about 70%. At that period it was described as Idiopathic Gastrointestinal Perforations and later as NEC. This NEC is the target of study of many research works which prove that to be a multifactorial disease including factors like feeding patterns, Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), reduced l-alanine secretion etc. Till date there prevails several controversies regarding this disease. I believe that it will be useful to review the research works published on NEC in order to summarize the causes and the drugs used for treating this disease in order to provide a basis for understanding and encouraging the need for further development in the fore coming researches.