CORRELATION OF SEPSIS SCREENING AND BLOOD CULTURE & SENSITIVITY IN CLINICALLY SUSPECTED CASES OF NEONATAL SEPSIS AND THEIR ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERNS

Abstract

Background: The definition of neonatal Septicemia is “a syndrome characterized by systematic signs and symptoms due to generalized bacterial Infection with a positive blood culture, in the first 28 days of life after birth.
Objective: to correlate Blood culture results with the Sepsis Screen to form an idea about the usefulness of investigations in early diagnosis and treatment of Neonatal Septicemia.
Methods: This study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Meenakshi Medical College & Research Institute, Kanchipuram from February 2022 to March 2023. Blood samples were collected from 125 clinically suspected cases of Neonatal Septicemia admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care unit in the Department of Pediatrics..
Results: Of the 64 culture positive cases, early onset septicemia was seen in75% of cases and late onset septicemia in 25% of cases. Septicemia was seen among 64% of Preterms,40.6% of very low birth weight neonates, 79.7% of neonates with spontaneous vaginal delivery and 62.5% of hospital inborn neonates. Unclean per vaginal examination prior to delivery, prematurity, low birth weight and birth asphyxia were the common risk factors seen in the culture positive cases. Majority of the culture positive cases i.e. 42.2% belonged to the high risk sepsis score group, followed by 40.6% in the moderate risk group and 17.2% of the cases in the low risk group. Gram negative organisms were the predominant causative agents of septicemia in 56.3% of cases compared to Gram positive organisms in 43.7% of cases.
Conclusion: In view of the ever changing spectrum of the causative agents of neonatal septicemia and their antibiotic sensitivity patterns from time to time and from one institute to another, a positive blood culture and the antibiotic susceptibility testing of the isolates are the best guide to the antimicrobial therapy