Publication:

Bacteriological profile and antibiogram of blood culture isolates done by automated culture and sensitivity method in a neonatal intensive care unit in a tertiary care hospital in Odisha, India

Background Sepsis is one of the commonest cause of neonatal mortality. The aetiology of neonatal sepsis has variations according to the various customs and practices in the perinatal and neonatal period and geographical area. This study was designed to analyse the magnitude and aetiological characteristics of neonatal sepsis & also the antibiotic sensitivity pattern of the isolates.

Methods This prospective study was conducted in the Department of Microbiology including 250 neonates with suspected neonatal sepsis admitted to Dept. of Paediatrics & NICU, of Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar, during the period from Nov. 2012 - April 2014. Two ml of venous blood was taken from each neonate & cultured by automated BacT/Alert & VITEK2 method for rapid isolation & sensitivity test. A structured proforma was used to collect the information for the baseline characteristics like age, gender, birth weight, gestational age, mode of delivery of the neonate and age of onset of illness.

Results Amongst the total samples processed, 82(32.8%) became culture positive among which gram positive bacteria were the most predominant (65.8%). Out of all the gram positive pathogens, CoNS were the most common isolates (88.5%). Among the total culture positive pathogenic isolates (n=82), S. haemolyticus was the predominant bacteria 28 (34.1%) followed by S. epidermidis 12 (14.6%) and Esch coli. 8 (9.8%). Staph. aureus was isolated from 6 (7.3%) cases whereas candida spp. were isolated from only 8 cases (9.6%).

Conclusions Present study revealed that both gram positive and gram negative bacteria were responsible for blood stream infections and most of the strains were multidrug resistant. Among gram positive bacterial pathogens, most common were Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) (88.5%) followed by Staphylococcus aureus (7.3%).