Ampicillin and gentamicin are a useful first-line combination for the management of sepsis in under-five children at an urban hospital in Bangladesh

The study evaluated the commonly-used drugs for the management of sepsis and their outcome among under-five children. we evaluated the hospital-records of all paediatric sepsis patients (n= 183) in the intensive care unit (icu) and longer-stay unit (lsu) of the dhaka hospital of icddr,b. these records were collected from the hospital management system (sheba) during november 2009 to october 2010. a total of 183 under-five children with clinical sepsis were found during the study period,and 14 (8%) of them were neonates. one hundred and eighty-one patients had received a combination of injection ampicilin and injection gentamicin,and two patients had received the combination of injection ceftriaxone and injection gentamicin. only 46 (25%) patients required a change of antibiotics to the combination of intravenous ceftriaxone plus gentamicin after non-response of injection ampicilin and injection gentamicin combination; 7/181 (4%) patients died who received injection ampicilin and injection gentamicin whereas none died among the other two patients who received injection ceftriaxone and injection gentamicin (p=1.00). the combination of injection ampicilin and injection gentamicin as the first-line antibiotics for the management of sepsis in children even beyond the neonatal age is very effective,resulting in lower mortality.