Two Cases of Hemorrhagic Necrotizing Enterocolitis as a Presenting Complaint of Hirschsprung's Disease

ABSTRACT

Hirschsprung's disease (HD) is one of the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in neonates. Enterocolitis is a well known complication of HD. Since a severe form of enterocolitis occurring in HD is the major cause of death and disability of these patients, early diagnosis is essential. Recently, ischemic hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis have been reported as lethal complications of HD. However little distinction is made between inflammatory enterocolitis which often follows HD and hemorrhagic ischemic necrotizing enterocolitis, which is a rare, and often fatal complication of HD. Most of reported cases of hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis developed very early, generally within 3 days of birth except several cases. Which may be confused with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) which was not associated with HD. We report here two cases of hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis associated with Hirschsprung's disease, who were initially diagnosed as having NEC.