Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development

Neonatal septicemia is the cause for 20% of neonatal deaths in the world and is more prevalent in developing nations. The main cause of concern is the development of multiple drug resistance strains in Neonatal intensive care units (NICU). The mainstay of treatment for both empirical and definitive therapy is based on rapid identification of these MDR strains and their antibiotic susceptibility that helps the clinicians in further successful management of septicemia in these patients.

To determine the antimicrobial profile of culture-positive neonatal sepsis and its antibiotic susceptibility patterns.

The blood culture and relevant data of newborns with culture positive neonatal sepsis were reviewed retrospectively. The data were collected from records of babies admitted in NICU of a tertiary health setup.

There were a total of 882 neonatal admissions, of which 141 neonates with culture positive sepsis were reviewed retrospectively. The average gestational age of newborns was 34.5 ± 3.4 weeks and the average birth was weight 1849 ± 665 gms. Most common organism isolated was Enterobacter Spp. 61 (43.3%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (28.4%), Acinetobacter baumanii (14.9%) and Pseudomonas. Spp.(7.1%). Among the least common microorganism was Salmonella typhi, Staph aureus and Citrobacter spp. was 0.7%, 2.1% and 2.1% each respectively. Early onset culture positive sepsis was 44.6% and late onset sepsis was 55.0%. The frequency of pathogens isolated was similar for both early and late onset sepsis. The resistance patterns of antibiotics to pathogens were also similar between early versus late onset sepsis.

Gram negative organisms particularly Enterobacter Spp., Klebsiella Pneumoniae and Acinetobactor baumanii are now predominant organisms causing neonatal septicemia in NICU both in early as well as late onset sepsis. Gram positive organisms are not the common cause of sepsis in our centre.