Observational studyArchives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition2020
Incidence of necrotising enterocolitis before and after introducing routine prophylactic
Observational study in Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 102 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Probiotics to prevent necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm or very low birth weight infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Evaluation of Risk and Preventive Factors for Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Premature Newborns. A Systematic Review of the Literature.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- Prophylactic Probiotic Supplementation for Preterm Neonates-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Nonrandomized Studies.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Pooled it
- Probiotics to prevent necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm or very low birth weight infants.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Probiotic Supplementation During the Perinatal and Infant Period: Effects on Gut Dysbiosis and Disease.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Synbiotic supplementation leads to gut microbiome communities with functional capacity linked to better brain white matter development in preterm infants.Gut microbes · 2026Trial
- L.Fermentum CECT5716 and B.Breve CECT7263 on premature infants morbidities: a randomized clinical trial.Pediatric research · 2026Trial
- Effect of a Multi-Strain Probiotic on the Incidence and Severity of Necrotizing Enterocolitis and Feeding Intolerances in Preterm Neonates.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Gut microbiota in necrotizing enterocolitis: a bibliometric and visualization analysis.Pediatric research · 2026Review
- Synergistic regulation of gut microbiota and metabolites by breast milk and probiotics in the prevention of neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis: mechanisms and prospects.Translational pediatrics · 2026Review
- Global perspectives on probiotic use to reduce NEC.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Exploring the role of the gut microbiome in pediatric gastrointestinal and neurological health.Translational pediatrics · 2025Review
- Development of the preterm infant gut and gastric residuals microbiome.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Dual-strain probiotics Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus reverse gut dysbiosis in preterm neonates: a randomized controlled trial.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2025Article
- Impact of early life antibiotic and probiotic treatment on gut microbiome and resistome of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Incidence of probiotic sepsis and morbidity risk in premature infants: a meta-analysis.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Article
- Diagnosing and engineering gut microbiomes.EMBO molecular medicine · 2024Review
- Effect of Probiotics on Gastrointestinal Health Through the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Pathway: A Systematic Review.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo compare rates of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), late-onset sepsis, and mortality in 5-year epochs before and after implementation of routine daily multistrain probiotics administration in high-risk neonates.
designSingle-centre retrospective observational study over the 10-year period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017.
settingLevel 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, UK. PATIENTS: Preterm neonates at high risk of NEC: admitted to NICU within 3 days of birth at <32 weeks' gestation or at 32-36 weeks' gestation and of birth weight <1500 g.
interventionPrior to 1 January 2013 probiotics were not used. Thereafter, dual-species
main outcome measuresIncidence of NEC (modified Bell's stage 2a or greater), late-onset sepsis, and mortality.
resultsRates of NEC fell from 7.5% (35/469 neonates) in the pre-implementation epoch to 3.1% (16/513 neonates) in the routine probiotics epoch (adjusted sub-hazard ratio=0.44, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.85, p=0.014). The more than halving of NEC rates after probiotics introduction was independent of any measured covariates, including breast milk feeding rates. Cases of late-onset sepsis fell from 106/469 (22.6%) to 59/513 (11.5%) (p<0.0001), and there was no episode of sepsis due to
conclusionsAdministration of multispecies
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.