Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Abstract

• Twelve cases of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) occurred within three weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with 325 annual admissions.Enterobacter cloacaetype 3305573 was found in stool and/or blood cultures from affected babies prior to the onset of the disease. This bacterium could not be grown in cultures from infants in the same NICU six weeks later. A causal relationship betweenE cloacaeand the epidemic of NEC is suggested. (Am J Dis Child134:1152-1154, 1980)