Use of antibiotics in neonatal sepsis at neonatal unit of a tertiary care hospital

Objectives: to assess the results of blood culture in neonatal sepsis and the sensitivity of the organisms to commonly used antibiotics in our set up. study design: observational descriptive study. place and duration of study: at neonatal unit of shaikh zayed hospital,lahore from march 2009 to march 2010. material and methods: 150 patients meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the study. the blood culture and sensitivity patterns to the commonly used antibiotics were observed. results: out of 150 presumed sepsis cases 48(32%) patients had culture proven sepsis. the most common organism isolated was escherichia coli followed by klebsiella,pseudomonas auregenosa,staphylococcus aureus and staphylococcus epidermidis. most of the organisms were resistant to ampicillin,gentamycin and even to cefotaxime. the organisms were relatively more sensitive to vancomycin and highly sensitive to imipenem. conclusion: the organisms isolated were almost the same as were in the previous studies. the rate of resistance of majority of the organisms to commonly used antibiotics has increased. the antibiotic policy adopted within a neonatal unit must be fit for local needs and should be sufficiently flexible to allow modification if susceptibility pattern changes.