PGY-2 Pediatric Resident Brookdale university Hospital and Medical center Brooklyn, New York, United States
Background: Many neonates in NICU are diagnosed with possible or presumed sepsis without any evidence of bacterial cause, a condition known as “culture negative sepsis (CNS)”. Most data on neonatal sepsis focuses on culture proven sepsis but large number of neonates receives antibiotic for CNS and its epidemiological data is not accurately represented. Studies suggests that its incidence exceeds incidence of proven sepsis by 16 folds in United States and by 50-fold in resource limited settings. According to recent estimates CNS contributes to 20% antibiotic usage in NICUs. It has been linked to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is no data on CNS in neonate with invasive devices. We devise this study to identify the incidence and frequency of culture negative sepsis in neonate with and without invasive devices. Objective: Our aim is to identify Incidence of culture negative sepsis in neonate with and without invasive devices in our NICU. Secondary outcome will be indication, type and duration of antibiotic used. Design/Methods: It will be a Retrospective cohort Study between Nov 2023 to Mar 2024 in a level III NICU. Neonates admitted between 1st Jan 2023 till 30th Jun 2023 and received antibiotic will be included. Sepsis definition and Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) criteria published in international Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference in 2005 will be used. IRB approval will be obtained. Data will be collected for gestational age, gender, diagnosis, blood culture, indication, type & number of days of antibiotic, length of stay, invasive device & duration, birth weight, blood culture and comorbid condition. Data will be analyzed using SPSS 22.0. Patient characteristics will be expressed as mean with standard deviation. Frequencies & percentages will be calculated for categorical variables. Pearson Chi-Square will be used to assess correlations and p-value of < 0.05 will be considered statistically significant. Timeline Oct 2023: Submitted for IRB review Nov 2023: IRB Approval Dec 2023 – Feb 2024: Data Collection Mar 2024: Data Analysis and results
