All issues > Volume 34(6); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(6):755-762. Published online June 30, 1991.

Predictive factors and initial selection of antibiotics in neonatal sepsis.

Dong Chul Park¹, Chul Lee¹, Kook In Park¹, Ran Namgung¹, Dong Gwan Han¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

Received: October 29, 1990;  Accepted: December 28, 1990.

Abstract

For simplifying and standardizing the interpretation of usual findings for neonatal sepsis, prenatal and perinatal factors, clinical symptoms and signs, method of management and hematologic findings were evaluated as a screening test. From the data obtained, a scoring system was formulated that assigns a score of 3 for diarrhea, 1. 5 for tachypnea, 1.5 for cyanosis, 1 for umbilical vessel catheterization, 1 for intravenous fluid therapy, 0.5 for abdominal distension, 0.5 for vomiting, 2 for immature/total neutrophil count ratio, 2 for C-reactive protein, 1.5 for leukocytosis, 0.5 for thrombocytopenia. There were 129 evaluations for sepsis (60 infants were with sepsis and the others were non-infected). In case of the score over 4, the sensitivity for neonatal sepsis was 48.3%, specificity was 89.9%, positive predictive value was 80.6% and negative predictive value was 66.7%. The antibiotic sensitivities of microorganisms causing neonatal sepsis were 82.5% of cephalothin, 81.0% of clindamycin and 94.1% of amikacin.

Keywords :Neonatal Sepsis;Scoring System