Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns in the NICU of Ghaem Hospital of Mashhad

Neonatal sepsis is considered a clinical syndrome characterized by signs and symptoms of infection associated with positive blood culture. The present study investigates the rate of sensitivity and resistance to antibiotics in neonates with definite sepsis.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 268 neonates with definitive sepsis (positive blood culture with clinical signs of infection) hospitalized in the NICU of Ghaem Hospital of Mashhad, from 2008 to 2018. To investigate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern, identifying microorganism and antibiogram tests was performed according to the standard microbiological method. The data were collected through a questionnaire designed by the researchers. It included neonates’ characteristics, types of microorganisms in neonatal unite, and sensitivity and resistance to neonatal sepsis’s common microorganism.

Based on the results, Klebsiella showed sensitivity to norfloxacin (100%), ciprofloxacin (100%), meropenem (100%), imipenem (94%), co-trimoxazole (73%), and vancomycin (67%). Similarly, Enterobacter showed 100% sensitivity to ciprofloxacin, meropenem, norfloxacin, and high sensitivity to imipenem (94%) and co-trimoxazole (83%). Acinetobacter turned out to be sensitive to co-trimoxazole and norfloxacin (both of them were 67%) and to amikacin in 33% of the cases. E. coli was sensitive to imipenem (83.33%), ciprofloxacin (80%), and ceftazidime (71.43%). Finally, staphylococcus coagulase negative was sensitive to piperacillin in 100%, vancomycin in 96.67%, and imipenem in 71.43% of the cases.

The findings of the present study suggest that high-sensitivity drugs for the treatment of definite neonatal sepsis are Meropenem(Klebsiella and E. coli), Enterobacter (Ampicilin), acinetobacter(Imipenem) and staphylococcus coagulase negative (vancomycin).