Clinical Correlates of Cerebellar Injury in Preterm Infants with Surgical Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Determine the risk factors of cerebellar injury in infants with surgical necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

Retrospective study compared clinical/pathological information between surgical NEC infants with and those without cerebellar injury.

Infants with cerebellar injury (21/65, 32.3%) had significantly more hemorrhagic and the reparative lesions on the intestinal histopathology, had patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) more often, received red cell transfusion frequently, had blood culture positive sepsis and grew gram positive organisms more often and had cholestasis frequently following NEC than those without cerebellar injury. On multilogistic regression, the positive blood culture sepsis (OR 3.9, CI 1.1-13.7, p = 0.03), PDA (OR 4.5, CI 1.0-19.9, p = 0.04) and severe hemorrhage (grade 3-4)(OR 16.9, CI 2.1-135.5, p = 0.007) were independently associated with higher risk of cerebellar injury.

The cerebellar injury was most likely associated with positive blood culture sepsis following NEC, PDA, and severe hemorrhage lesions (grade 3-4) in infants with surgical NEC.