[Neonatal small left colon syndrome: a finding of only radiological or also clinical significance? (author's transl)].

The finding in the literature that the neonatal small left colon syndrome can be present in newborn infants of diabetic mothers without relevant clinical signs led us to perform contrast enema investigations of the colon in 20 newborn infants of insulin-dependent diabetic mothers. Among these only one infant, with signs of intestinal obstruction, had the small left colon syndrome. During the same period the neonatal small left colon syndrome was diagnosed in 4 out of 10 mature newborn infants of healthy, non-diabetic mothers who underwent contrast enema investigation because of intestinal obstruction. The concepts of the pathogenesis of the neonatal small left colon syndrome and the importance of this form of functional intestinal obstruction in the newborn are discussed together with the presumptive relationship to severe gastrointestinal complications such as e.g. necrotizing enterocolitis, seen with increasing frequency in artificially ventilated newborns.