Early versus late-onset necrotizing enterocolitis in very low birth infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), one of the most severe emergencies in neonates, is a multifactorial disease with diverse risk factors. To compare between the clinical and laboratory characteristics of premature infants diagnosed with early-onset NEC (EO-NEC) and those with late-onset NEC (LO-NEC). Enrolled infants were identified from prospective local data collected for the Israel National very low birth weight (VLBW, < 1500 g) infant database and from the local electronic patient files data base for the period 1996–2017. Overall, 95 VLBW infants (61, 64.21% EO-NEC and 34, 35.87% LO-NEC) were enrolled. EO-NEC infants had higher rate of IVH grade 3 and 4 (26.2% vs 2.9%, p = 0.005) and were more likely to undergo surgery (49.2% vs 26.5%, p = 0.031). LO-NEC infants had a higher incidence of previous bloodstream infections (35.3% vs 8.2%, p = 0.002) compared to EO-NEC. In multivariable analysis models, surgical intervention was associated with EO-NEC (OR: 4.627, p = 0.013) as well as PDA and positive blood culture prior to the NEC episode. Our data support the hypothesis that EO-NEC has significant different clinical and microbiological attributes compared to LO-NEC.