SIGNEC meeting offers opportunity to discuss necrotising enterocolitis

Although necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) can be devastating, it remains relatively unknown outside of neonatal units. Among the organisations seeking to address this, the UK-based Special Interest Group for NEC (SIGNEC) is a multidisciplinary group of neonatal doctors and surgeons, nurses, dietitians, other healthcare professionals, parents and researchers that meet annually to discuss ways of highlighting the disease, sharing best practice and research.

Nigel Hall, Associate Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Southampton, and Consultant Paediatric and Neonatal Surgeon at Southampton Children's Hospital, says: "Research into NEC is essential if we are to try to change the landscape in terms of improving prevention of NEC and learning how to treat the disease more effectively. Despite many advances in neonatal care over the past 20 years the incidence of NEC and the outcomes of NEC are things that really have not improved as much as they should. This highlights our lack of understanding about what precisely causes the condition and how to reliably determine when an infant has NEC. This latter point will be the focus of discussion and debate at the SIGNEC meeting.

"How do we define NEC accurately at the bedside and how should we define it in research studies? Getting to the bottom of this is really important if we are to design high quality research studies that are so desperately needed to prevent NEC and improve outcomes."

The next SIGNEC meeting is on 29-30 October at Chelsea Football Club, London, and will feature a packed programme and evening social event. The event promises to be a great opportunity to learn from international researchers and experts as well as making sure delegates can have their say in how to fight NEC.

For more information, visit www.signec.org