Can early surgery improve the outcome of patients with meconium peritonitis? A single-center experience over 16 years

BACKGROUND: In the last century, meconium peritonitis(MP)was once a highly fatal gastrointestinal. disease With the development of fetal radiological technology, abnormal signs, such as pseudocysts, can. be detected during the fetal period so that more patients can be diagnosed prenatally and receive surgery. in the early stage of life. The survival rate of MP has increased up to 80% in recent years. According to. a review of the treatment and outcomes of patients diagnosed with MP, we evaluated the influence of. early operation on survival rate and discussed the risk factors of prognosis. METHODS: We collected 79 cases of patients diagnosed with MP who were treated in our department. from October 2001 to December 2017. They were divided into 2 groups. Patients in group A were born. in our hospital. Patients in group B were born in a local hospital with suspicion of MP and then transferred. to our department. RESULTS: The birth weight (BW) and gestational age (GA) of patients were higher in group A than in. group B. There was no significant difference in the proportion of premature and low birth weight (LBW). patients between the two groups (p = 0.422, p = 0.970). Their age at the time of surgery was younger in. group A than in group B (1.4 ± 2.0 vs. 6.9 ± 14.9, p < 0.001). The overall survival rate of group A was higher. than that of group B (95.0% vs. 79.5%, p = 0.038). The prognosis of premature patients was worse than. that of full-term infants for both groups (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS: Prematurity is a significant risk factor related to death for MP patients. The survival rate. of MP patients can be improved by early operation during the neonatal period.