Late-preterm infants have increased risk of neonatal morbidities associated with organ immaturity. The results of this study emphasize the importance of judicious obstetrical decision-making when considering late preterm delivery, and the need to set up anticipatory clinical guidelines for the care of late preterm infants.
We aimed to characterize the incidence, clinical features, risk factors and outcomes of recurrent late-onset sepsis (LOS) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). All neonates with LOS from the NICU of a tertiary-level teaching hospital in northern Taiwan between 2004 and 2011 were enrolled for analyses. A case-control study was performed to determine risk factors for recurrence. Of 713 neonates with LOS, 150 (21.0%) experienced recurrence and 48 (6.7%) had >1 recurrences; c. two-thirds of recurrent LOS occurred in infants with birth weight (BW)≦1500 g or gestational age (GA)≦30 weeks. The recurrent LOS episodes were significantly more severe and had a higher sepsis-attributable mortality rate than the first episodes. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 30.7% for neonates with recurrent LOS and 7.8% for those with single LOS (odds ratio (OR), 5.22; 95% CI, 3.28-8.30). When both BW and GA were controlled, neonates with recurrent LOS had a significantly prolonged hospitalization compared with the controls (median 109 vs. 84 days, p<0.001). After multivariate logistic regression, longer duration of total parenteral nutrition (TPN; OR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.10-1.52 for every 10-day increment), presence of congenital anomalies (OR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.10-6.35) and neurological co-morbidities (OR, 4.14; 95% CI, 1.14-15.10) were identified as the independent risk factors for LOS recurrence. We concluded that c. one-fifth of neonates with LOS had recurrence, which significantly resulted in prolonged hospitalization and increased mortality. Longer TPN administration, presence of congenital anomalies and neurological co-morbidities are independently associated with recurrent LOS.
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