Author:
Mohinuddin Syed,Sakhuja Pankaj,Bermundo Benjie,Ratnavel Nandiran,Kempley Stephen,Ward Harry C,Sinha Ajay
Abstract
Bilious vomiting in a neonate may be a sign of intestinal obstruction often resulting in transfer requests to surgical centres. The aim of this study was to assess the use of clinical findings at referral in predicting outcomes and to determine how often such patients have a time-critical surgical condition (eg, volvulus, where a delay in treatment is likely to compromise gut viability).Methods4-year data and outcomes of all term newborns aged ≤7 days with bilious vomiting transferred by a regional transfer service were analysed. Specificity, sensitivity, likelihood ratios, correlations, prior and posterior probability of clinical findings in predicting newborns with surgical diagnosis were calculated.ResultsOf 163 neonates with bilious vomiting, 75 (46%) had a surgical diagnosis and 23 (14.1%) had a time-critical surgical condition. The diagnosis of a surgical condition in neonates with bilious vomiting was significantly associated with abdominal distension (χ2=5.17, p=0.023), abdominal tenderness (χ2=5.90, p=0.015) and abnormal abdominal X-ray findings (χ2=5.68, p=0.017) but not with palpation findings of a soft as compared with a tense abdomen (χ2=3.21, p=0.073). Abnormal abdominal X-ray, abdominal distension and tenderness had 97%, 74% and 62% sensitivity, respectively, with regard to association with an underlying surgical diagnosis. Normal abdominal X-ray reduced the posterior probability of surgical diagnosis from 50% to 16%. Overall, clinical findings at referral did not differentiate between infants with or without surgical or time-critical condition.ConclusionsWe recommend that term neonates with bilious vomiting referred for transfer are prioritised as time critical.
Subject
Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
Reference11 articles.
1. Easily missed? Intestinal malrotation and volvulus in infants and children;Shalaby;BMJ,2013
2. Bilious vomiting in the newborn: how often is further investigation undertaken?;Walker;J Pediatr Surg,2007
3. An audit of transfers for neonatal surgical care in England in 2007;Burge;Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed,2009
4. Bilious vomiting in the newborn: rapid diagnosis of intestinal obstruction;Kimura;Am Fam Physician,2000
5. Green vomiting in the first 72 hours in normal infants;Lilien;Am J Dis Child,1986
Cited by
16 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献