Contributor: Peter Bakes, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC)
• • Presents in the first few days of life (often in the NICU) to 3 weeks old
  • Risk factors include prematurity, excess feeding, neonatal sepsis
  • Pneumatosis Intestinalisis on abdominal xray caused by bacterial translocation into the bowel wall
  • Treated with NG tube, bowel rest and surgical resection
• Other causes of pediatric abdominal pain
• • Malrotation with volvulus
  • • Malrotation is caused by failure of intestinal rotation in the 8th-12th week of development
    • Presents with bilious vomiting, which is a surgical emergency in a neonate
    • 90% of cases present in the first year of life, with most of these presenting in the first month
    • Diagnosed with an upper GI series
  • Pyloric Stenosis
  • • Typically in males
    • Diagnosed with abdominal ultrasound and treated surgically
  • Intussusception
  • • Typically presents between 2 months and 2 years with a palpable mass in the RUQ
    • Diagnosed with abdominal ultrasound
  • Duodenal atresia
  • • Congenital stricture in the duodenum
    • Presents with bilious vomiting and a double-bubble on abdominal xray

References

Alwan R, Drake M, Gurria Juarez J, Emery KH, Shaaban AF, Szabo S, Sobolewski B. A Newborn With Abdominal Pain. Pediatrics. 2017 Nov;140(5):e20164267. doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-4267. PMID: 29042421.

Hostetler MA, Schulman M. Necrotizing enterocolitis presenting in the Emergency Department: case report and review of differential considerations for vomiting in the neonate. J Emerg Med. 2001 Aug;21(2):165-70. doi: 10.1016/s0736-4679(01)00371-7. PMID: 11489407.

Summarized by John Spartz, MS3