Small-bowel atresia and stenosis

Between 1978 and 1986, 55 neonates were treated for small-bowel atresia, stenosis, or segmental dilatation with an overall survival rate of 89%. Before 1981, 21 patients were treated with a mortality rate of 14%, whereas the mortality rate for the 34 treated after 1981 was 9%. Whenever possible, an end-to-end single layer anastomosis was performed with a mortality rate of 6%. In very sick patients with complicated lesions, defunctioning stomas were the safest form of treatment, but patients so treated had a mortality rate of 12.5%. The main causes of death were other severe congenital anomalies.