Clinicians’ attitudes to the West Midlands damage control surgery pathway for severe necrotising enterocolitis

Finding a consensus on the indications for referral to surgery in neonates with severe necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) requiring an operation has proved extremely challenging, not just between neonatologists and surgeons but also within their own specialty.1 2 These differences may have contributed to the observation that the median time from diagnosis of a baby with perforated NEC in the UK to surgery was 23.5 hours.3 4