The role of genital mycoplasmas in the pathogenesis of neonatal infection is incompletely understood. We performed nasopharyngeal, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures forMycoplasma hominisandUreaplasma urealyticumin 69 neonates who underwent a diagnostic workup for suspected sepsis. The mean gestational age was 35.9 weeks (range, 25 to 42 weeks) with a mean birth weight of 2386 g (range, 652 to 4420 g). Twenty-seven infants (39.1percnt;) had positive nasopharyngeal cultures; 6 were positive forM. hominis, 10 forU. urealyticumand 11 for both organisms. Seven (26percnt;) of these 27 patients developed chronic lung disease compared with 2 (4.7percnt;) infants in the non-colonized group. Nine infants had positive CSF cultures forM. hominisand one infant had a positive CSF culture forU. urealyticum. All blood cultures were sterile. One of the infants with a positive CSF culture forM. hominishad clinical evidence of systemic infection. All of the infants were treated with antibiotic agents that were not active against mycoplasmas. These data indicate that genital mycoplasmas can be found commonly in the CSF and nasopharynx of infants with suspected sepsis. Their etiologic role in the causation of infection and chronic lung disease, however, remains unclear.
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