Meconium peritonitis--a retrospective, prognostic analysis of 69 patients.

Meconium peritonitis being a rare anomaly, it is difficult to find the factors that determine the prognosis. In spite of the high mortality, this aspect has hardly ever been studied. A retrospective study of 69 patients from the Netherlands over a 15 year period, revealed that a patient with pneumoperitoneum and a generalized type of meconium peritonitis has a relatively favourable prognosis. Despite a more optimistic outlook expressed in recent publications, an overview of the world literature involving 1084 patients shows that the mortality for this disease has not dropped in the past 15 years and still amounts to 55%.