Decrease in the eosinophil levels in neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis requiring surgery

Abstract

SUMMARY
Introduction: Necrotizing enterocolitis continues to be the most frequent and serious acquired digestive pathology in the neonatal period. There are few studies in our environment on the numbers of sinophils in patients with this diagnosis.
Objective: The objective was to compare eosinophil levels in two severity groups of neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
Methods: Observational, cross-sectional and comparative study based on the eosinophil count at admission and at diagnosis in patients with NEC, with medical vs surgical management.
Results: Patients with surgical treatment had a lower percentage of eosinophils on admission (p=0.034), a lower proportion of eosinophilia (>3%) (p=0.025) and a lower percentage of eosinophils at the time of NEC diagnosis (p=0.045). . The patients with surgical treatment had a lower gestational age (29.6 ± 2.6 vs 32.0 ± 2.5, p=0.002), a higher frequency of a history of blood transfusion (64.3% vs 36.4%, p=0.050), a higher proportion of patients who worsened the stage of NEC (28.6% vs 5.2%, p=0.018), older age at hospital discharge: 73 (80) vs 39 (37) days, (p=0.008) and higher mortality (28.6% vs 1.3%, p=0.002 ).
Conclusions: The decrease in the eosinophil count in this sample of patients was compromised with more serious events, the lack of an eosinophil hematological response could be an indicator of poor prognosis, due to the nature of our study we should still consider it as a finding.