Reduced antibiotic exposure by serial physical examinations in term neonates at risk of early-onset sepsis

Background: Suspected early-onset sepsis (EOS) results in antibiotic treatment of a substantial number of neonates who are uninfected. We evaluated if an approach using serial physical examinations (SPEs) can reduce antibiotic exposure for suspected EOS in term neonates during the first 3 days of life, without affecting safety. Method(s): Within a quality-improvement framework, SPEs for 24-48 hours for neonates with suspected EOS was implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit, Stavanger, Norway. The proportion of neonates>=37 weeks gestation exposed to antibiotics, antibiotic therapy-days and the safety outcome time from birth to start antibiotics were compared between a baseline period (April 2014-February 2016), when a risk factor based approach was used, and a post-SPE-implementation period (January 2017-November 2018). Result(s): We included all term live born neonates (n = 17,242) in the 2 periods. There was a 57% relative reduction in neonates exposed to antibiotics; 2.9% in the baseline and 1.3% in the post-implementation period, P
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news