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Start free with EleplanNecrotizing enterocolitis
ORPHA:391673Disease
What it is
A rare intestinal disease characterized by potentially life-threatening inflammatory bowel necrosis predominantly affecting preterm neonates. Patients may present with feeding intolerance, lethargy, temperature instability, abdominal distention, blood-stained stools, diarrhea, bilious vomiting, apnea, and signs of sepsis. Radiographic features include pneumatosis intestinalis, portal venous gas, presence of fixed, dilated intestinal loops, bowel wall edema, and (in case of bowel perforation) pneumoperitoneum.
Key facts
- Prevalence
- 1-5 / 10 000
- Age of onset
- Neonatal
- Inheritance
- Not applicable
- Classified as
- Disease
Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.
Signs and symptoms
Common30–79%
12Sometimes5–29%
21- Abdominal rigidity
- Abnormal glucose homeostasis
- Abnormal heart morphology
- Acidosis
- Apnea
- Ascites
- Bradycardia
- Disseminated intravascular coagulation
and 13 more in this range
These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.
ICD-10 codes
Related health topics
Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.
Cross-references
Orphadata Science: Free access data from Orphanet. © INSERM 1999. Data version 2026-06-23. Available under CC BY 4.0. This is a reference, not medical advice.
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