European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Introduction:Neonatal sepsis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries.According to the World Health Organization(WHO),around5 million newbornsdie yearly, 98% of deaths occurring in developing countries
Objectives: To identify prevalence of neonatal sepsis,aetiological profile,antibiotic sensitivity pattern and outcome in a tertiary care centre and to formulate a consensus recommendation for empirical antibiotic usage for neonatal sepsis in our hospital.
Method:A hospital based prospective observational study was done from March 2019 to August 2020 on babies diagnosed or suspected as cases of neonatal sepsis in our hospital.
Results:Atotal of 200 neonates were included in our study with clinical suspicion of sepsis during the study period. 127 (63.5%) neonates were identified as EOS (0-3 days) and 73 (36.5%) aslate onset sepsis (4-28 days).Prematurity was thecommonest predisposing factor(68.5%).Feeding intolerance was the commonest presentation (74%).Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy of C-reactive protein (CRP) + absolute neutrophil count (ANC) were 93.8% ,90.8%, 34.9%, 99.6% and 90.9% respectively.(p <0.001).Klebsiella pneumonia + Klebsiellaoxytoca(16+1) was the most common isolate (35.4%),There were 6 (12.5%) isolates of Staphylococcus aureus out of which 2 were methicilin resistant aureus(MRSA).
Conclusions:Of the 200 neonates with suspected neonal sepsis,63.5% had EOS. Prematurity was the commonest predisposing factor(68.5%) and feeding intolerance was the commonest presentation (74%).Klebsiella (35.4%) was the most common isolate.