Experience of ten years of neutropenic enterocolitis in intensive care at Instituto Nacional de Pediatría

Abstract

Neutropenic enterocolitis (NEC) is a disease characterized by an inflam- matory process with damage to the intestinal mucosa and occurs as a complication of cytotoxic chemotherapy in oncological diseases, and severe neutropenia secondary to other diseases.Objective: To describe the population of patients with NEC who are served in the pediatric intensive care unit at Instituto Nacional de Pediatría. Methods: 10-year data of patients registered with a diagnosis of NEC (1 500 cel/µL less neutropenia, acute abdomen, consistent studies cabi- net) on admission to the intensive therapy that consisted of: age, type of cancer, organ failure, stage of sepsis, medical treatment and surgical management. Frequencies and percentages for qualitative; statistical analysis for measures of dispersion and central tendency were used for quantitative variables. Results: Population of 116 patients, 69 (60%) were men. The leukemia is the most common malignancy in 55%. 35% of patients corresponded to stage school. Sepsis was the most common presentation. Abdominal pain symptom most frequently found. 33% died as a result. Conclusions: The present study is exploratory in nature and compares the local epidemiology of the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría with UTIP world