The consequences of prolonged duration of antibiotics in premature infants with suspected sepsis in a large tertiary referral hospital: a?retrospective cohort study

摘要

ObjectiveTo assess whether there is any association between prolonged duration of the first course of empirical antibiotic treatment for suspected neonatal sepsis and other factors including comorbidities, interventions, and adverse outcomes.BackgroundNeonatal sepsis is one of the main reasons of mortality among premature infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Therefore, commencing antibiotics treatment on admission plays a crucial role in reducing the complications of neonatal sepsis, however the arbitrary use of antibiotics holds many serious complications. In our study we investigated the complications of prolonged use of antibiotics in treating suspected early onset of sepsis.Study designThis is a retrospective cohort study of infants of gestational age 32 weeks or less and with birth weight of 1500?g or less along with suspected neonatal sepsis admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit from July 2015 to June 2017. The study outcome measures were the association between the antibiotic treatment duration and maternal factors, gender, adverse outcomes, developmental factors, comorbid conditions, early-onset sepsis, and late-onset sepsis.ResultsOf 295 premature infants, late-onset sepsis was associated with the duration of early empiric antibiotic use (n?=?54/295), where 50 (92.6%) infants with LOS received the antibiotic treatment for more than 5 days (P?