Clinical manifestation and laboratory findings in positive blood culture in neonatal septicemia

Background: neonatal septicemia is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in newborns. this study aimed to evaluate the clinical manifestation and laboratory findings of positive blood culture in neonatal septicemia. methods: in this retrospective study, we investigated 100 positive blood culture records of neonates suffering from septicemia. a questionnaire was completed for each patient regarding their age at admission, gender, birth weight, admission time, type of delivery, pre-term or post-term delivery and the clinical symptoms. types of organism causing sepsis and their resistance to antibiotics were evaluated and empirical treatment was the method of choice. results: respiratory distress, cyanosis and lethargy were more prevalent among the patients. the antibiogram was indicative of ampicillin resistance in 86% and gentamicin resistance in 66% of the studied records. moreover, it was observed that 36% of the positive blood culture cases had gram-negative and 64% had gram-positive bacteria. the most frequent bacteria in blood cultures were coagulase-negative staphylococcus (35%), staphylococcus aureus (24%) and klebsiella (18%), respectively. other prevalent bacteria were enterobacter, e. coli and enterococcus (5%), acinetobacter (3%), pseudomonas aeruginosa and gram-negative bacilli (2%) and serratia (1%). according to the antibiogram, the most effective antibiotics against bacterial growth were vancomycin, cephalosporin, amikacin, co-trimoxazole and gentamicin. conclusion: since the most frequent bacteria in neonatal septicemia cases were coagulase-negative staphylococcus, staphylococcus aureus and klebsiella, pediatricians need to select regiments able to cover the gram-negative bacteria for empirical antibiotic treatment.