ABSTRACT

Neonatal sepsis is one of the most frequent and life threatening disorder in the first one month of life. The type of the causative organisms and their resistance may change by the time even in the same hospital. In this study, we aimed to evaluate characteristics of the culture-proven cases in our neonatal intensive care unit.

Between January 2012-July 2015, 1735 neonates who were hospitalized at neonatal intensive care unit of Bezmialem Vakıf University Hospital. The 56 patients diagnosed as culture proven sepsis were involved in the study.

The mean gestational age of patients was 31,70±4,92 weeks, and the mean birth weight was 1654,07±906,6 grams. The patients were 76,8% premature and 23,2% term newborns. Early onset neonatal sepsis was diagnosed %14,3% of patients, late onset neonatal sepsis was diagnosed 85,7% of patients. KoNS was the most frequently isolated gram positive microorganism in whole cultures. Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most frequently isolated gram negative microorganisms. Vancomycin resistance was not determined in any of the gram positive microorganisms. Meropenem resistance was not determined and imipenem had a maximum value of 50% resistance in the evaluated gram negative microorganisms. Mortality rate was 12,5% in both early onset neonatal sepsis and in late onset neonatal sepsis. All of the babies who were died were premature in both sepsis groups.

The type of sepsis and microorganisms and their antibiotic resistance changes amongst neonatal intensive care units and also in the same unit by the time. Active surveillance is recommended to update the treatment protocols.

Keywords: Neonatal sepsis, prematurity, antibiotic resistance