Risk factors for the development of neonatal sepsis in a neonatal intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital of Nepal

Abstract

Background: Sepsis is an overwhelming and life-threatening response to bacteria in bloodstream and a major cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Understanding the etiology and potential risk factors for neonatal sepsis is urgently required, particularly in low-income countries where burden of pathogens is high and epidemiology is poorly understood.Methods: A prospective observational cohort study was conducted between April 2016 and October 2017 in a level three NICU of a tertiary care hospital in Nepal to determine the bacterial etiology and potential risk factors for neonatal sepsis.Results: Among 142 NICU admitted neonates, 15% (21/142) and 32% (46/142) developed blood culture-positive and -negative neonatal sepsis respectively. Klebsiella pneumoniae (34%, 15/44) and Enterobacter spp. (25%, 11/44) were the most common isolates. The antimicrobial resistance of isolates to ampicillin (100%, 43/43), cefotaxime (74%, 31/42) and ampicillin-sulbactam (55%, 21/38) were the highest with blaTEM (53%, 18/34) and blaKPC (46%, 13/28) being the commonest ESBL and carbapenemase genes. In univariate logistic regression, various potential neonatal, maternal, environmental and laboratory parameters were tested. Of these, the odds of sepsis increased with each additional day of use of invasive procedures such as mechanical ventilation (OR 1.086, 95% CI 1.008–1.170), umbilical artery catheter (OR 1.375, 95% CI 1.049–1.803), intravenous cannula (OR 1.140, 95% CI 1.062–1.225); blood transfusion events (OR 3.084, 95% CI 1.407–6.760); NICU stay (OR 1.109, 95% CI 1.040–1.182); failure to breast feed (OR 1.130, 95% CI 1.060–1.205); leukopenia (OR 1.790, 95% CI 1.04–3.082),thrombocytopenia (OR 0.992, 95% CI 0.989–0.994) and increase in C-reactive protein (OR 1.028, 95% CI 1.016–1.040). In multivariate analysis, increase in IV cannula insertion days (OR 1.140, 95% CI 1.024–1.269) and CRP level (OR 1.021, 95% CI 1.003–1.040) increased the odds of sepsis.Conclusions: Our study indicated various nosocomial risk factors and underscored the need to improve local infection control measures so as to reduce the existing burden of sepsis. We have highlighted certain sepsis associated laboratory parameters along with identification of antimicrobial resistance genes, which can guide for early and better therapeutic management of sepsis. These findings could be extrapolated to other low-income settings within the region.

Predictors of Occurrence and 30-Day Mortality for Co-Infection of Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae and Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

“…Bringing colonized bacteria into the lesion during the examination and subsequently causing infection ( Sato et al., 2020 ). Therefore, it is essential to enhance operational hygiene and infection control measures for aseptic procedures ( Manandhar et al., 2021 ). Blood transfusions are commonly used to treat patients with acute blood loss during surgery and hypoproteinemia, who are relatively immune-compromised ( Zhai et al., 2022 ).…”