[Digestive stenosis after neonatal enterocolitis]

Nineteen clinical cases of intestinal stricture due to neonatal necrotising enterocolitis and a review of available references are presented in this paper. Intestinal strictures are estimated to arise in 20% to 30% on neonatal enterocolitis. However the delay between the acute episode and the occurrence of the stenosis is variable; the depth and the extend, of the necrosis as well as inflammation and superinfection may contribute to the building up of the intestinal stricture. The histological aspects of the lesions are not unique, more over cases of spontaneously regressive stenosis are known. Question thus arising as to the most appropriate timing for surgery and the choice of surgical technics as a function of clinical aspects and of derivation of the disease are discussed in this paper.