Potential Prenatal Origins of Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Abstract

Necrotizing enterocolitis is a serious and yet incompletely understood gastrointestinal disease of infancy that predominately impacts premature neonates. Prevention is a key strategy for the management of necrotizing enterocolitis. Although postnatal risk factors have been the focus of prevention efforts, obstetric complications, including intrauterine inflammation and infection, growth restriction, preeclampsia, and prenatal medications, have been associated with an increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis. This article reviews the evidence behind the prenatal risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis, and discusses how these risk factors may elucidate the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis and provide insight into prevention and treatment.

Keywords: Fetal exposure to maternal inflammation; Fetal inflammatory response syndrome; Growth restriction; Intrauterine infection and inflammation; Maternal origins of neonatal disease; Necrotizing enterocolitis; Preeclampsia.