Bacteriological profile and antibiotic susceptibility patterns in neonatal septicemia in view of emerging drug resistance

The objective of this study was to isolate pathogenic bacteria in neo-natal septicaemia cases, and to know their antibiograms. Under aseptic precautions, blood was drawn from 140 neonates with sus-pected septicaemia and inoculated in brain heart infusion (BHI) broth. Isolates obtained were identified as per standard protocol and antibi-otic susceptibility was done by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method (as per CLSI guidelines). A total number of 62 (44.2%) patients had positive blood cultures. The most common pathogens isolated were Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=22, 35%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (n=15, 24.1%), Escherichia coli (n=14, 22.5%), CONS (n=7, 11.2%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=4, 6.4%). The Gram nega-tive organisms showed high resistance to commonly used antibiotics and were highly sensitive to Meropenem. The Gram positive bacteria showed high resistance to Ampicillin, Erythromycin and Amoxycillin; but they were highly susceptible to Linizolid and Vancomycin. As the Gram negative organisms were the most common isolates in neona-tal septicemia, their resistance pattern should be considered essen-tial for deciding the empirical treatment. Prompt treatment of neonatal sepsis with judicious use of appropriate antibiotics can minimize the morbidity and mortality, besides reducing the emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms in intensive care units (ICUs)