| Sumario: | Clinical management of gut injury has been a challenge to the clinician since the first description of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) about 50 years ago, and it is still poorly defined. Most of the diagnostic markers are non-specific, and there is no consensus yet on a reliable gold standard for diagnosis. This report describes our approach to integrating point of care intestinal ultrasound (IUS) as the primary radiological assessment modality with other clinical and biochemical markers.Conclusions: This is the first clinical guideline integrating point of care IUS as a routine assessment of the gut injury. This integrated algorithm improves the quality of care of the gut injury, provides a more accurate diagnosis of NEC, and differentiates other categories of gut injury.What Is Known: • Necrotizing enterocolitis is a poorly defined disease, and the routine assessment relying on AXR does not differentiate NEC from other categories of gut injury.What Is New: • Integrating point of care IUS with the routine clinical assessment of gut injury enables the gut injury to be classified according to the triggering factors and severity; this helps target the appropriate management.
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