Etiology Of Neonatal Peritonitis Treated at The University Hospital Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona, Antananarivo

Neonatal peritonitis is burdened with high morbidity and mortality despite progress in pediatric intensive care. The causal pathologies are multiple. Their knowledge is an important tool for improving care. The objective of our study is to determine the causes of neonatal peritonitis treated in our center. This is a retrospective, descriptive study of 72 months. The inclusion criteria were newborns less than 28 days old operated for peritonitis. The parameters studied were age, gender, perinatal history, site of perforation, causal pathologies. Eighteen patients were collected. The average age was 8 days, with extremes of 3 and 25 days. There was a male predominance with a sex ratio of 8. In the prenatal history, 1 case of gestational diabetes and 2 cases of gravidic hypertension were found. The average birth weight was 2730 g with extremes of 2500 g and 3500 g. The site of perforation was at the small intestine (7 cases), the colon (5 cases) and the stomach (4 cases) and there were 2 cases of multiple perforation. Ulcerative-necrotizing enterocolitis and mechanical causes represented the two main etiologies, each representing 44.44% of cases. Mechanical etiologies which represent 44% of cases could have been prevented by early management of the causal pathologies.