Cardiac NEC
Babies with certain medical conditions, such as congenital heart defects (CHD), are at a higher risk of developing NEC, even when they are born at term.
CHD Awareness Week is February 7-14!
Congenital heart defect (CHD) refers to structural defects in the heart present at birth.
What is NEC?
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a devastating intestinal disease that primarily affects premature infants. NEC can also affect term babies, especially infants with a medical condition, like a congenital heart defect. NEC causes severe inflammation of the intestine, leading to a bacterial infection causing necrosis (tissue death).
NEC does not have a single cause, and more research is needed to fully understand why and how NEC occurs.
What is Cardiac NEC?
Babies with certain medical conditions, such as congenital heart defects (CHD), are at increased risk of developing NEC, even when they are born at term.
Changes in blood flow due to heart disease may compromise blood flow to the intestine and potentially lead to NEC.
Term infants with CHD and NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) have been shown to have abnormal gut blood flow patterns.
How to Protect Against Cardiac NEC?
We know that feeding vulnerable infants mothers’ own milk offers the best protection against NEC, but human milk does not eliminate the risks of NEC. When mother’s own milk is not available, pasteurized donor milk offers the next best protection.
There is an urgent need for increased research on NEC risk factors and prevention for babies and families most at risk of NEC.
We are working tirelessly to fully understand NEC so we can prevent the disease and protect all infants from the devastation of NEC.
Patient-Family Stories: Cardiac NEC
Mother's milk and pasteurized donor milk provide protection against NEC before heart surgery.
Researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital retrospectively studied babies with CHD who needed heart surgery after birth and before discharge. The results of the study suggest that mother’s milk and donor milk are associated with a lower risk of NEC before heart surgery. While more research on CHD and NEC is critically needed, this work shows that CHD babies benefit from human milk and that human milk helps to protect these vulnerable infants from devastating outcomes like necrotizing enterocolitis.
