Maternal Risk Factors associated with Neonatal Sepsis-A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Neonatal sepsis can be defined as a clinical condition which is characterized by signs and symptoms of infection in an infant 28 days of life or younger. This is manifested by systemic signs of infection and/ or isolation of a bacterial or other pathogen from the bloodstream. Sepsis is still one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality globally in neonates, despite of recent advances in healthcare units. The incidence of neonatal sepsis by bacteremia in asymptomatic infants is low. In neonatal sepsis we can include septicemia, pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis, and arthritis and urinary tract infections. The burden for neonatal sepsis was 2,202 (95% CI: 1,099–4,360) per 100,000 live births, with mortality between 11% and 19% and more than 40% of under-five deaths occur in the neonatal period, resulting in 3.1 million new-born deaths each year globally.Material and methods: The total number neonates admitted in the hospital in given study period was 447, of which 198 were diagnosed for neonatal sepsis by the physician based on the signs and symptoms during admission. The data was collected in three parts: sociodemographic characteristics; maternal information; and part neonatal information for neonatal sepsis. Data was collected in the excel sheet and questionnaires were reviewed and organized by investigators.Results: Of the 198 neonates, 162 (81.8%) infants were in the age range of 0 to 7 days while 36 (18.2%) were aged between 8 and 28 days. Statistically significant difference was observed between early onset and late onset sepsis patients. Out of 198 cases 107 (54%) were male while 91(46%) were female. In early onset sepsis cases maternal UTI, Meconium stained amniotic fluid, Multipara and Premature rupture of membrane was seen in 24(14.8%), 21(13.0%), 19(11.7%) and 32 (19.8%) cases respectively. In late onset sepsis cases maternal UTI, Meconium stained amniotic fluid, Multipara and Premature rupture of membrane was seen in 1(2.8%), 2 (5.6%), 4(11.1%) and 2 (5.6%) cases respectively. Maternal risk factors were identified in 104(64.2%) of early onset sepsis cases while maternal risk factors in late onset sepsis cases were 10(27.8%). Culture positivity was observed in 28 (17.3%) cases of early neonatal sepsis while it was 4 (11.1%) in late onset sepsis.Conclusion: There was male preponderance in early as well as late onset neonatal sepsis. Maternal risk identification may help in the early identification and timely empirical antibiotic therapy. The prediction and/ or diagnosis of neonatal sepsis should be bases on culture-independent diagnostics and risk factor-based scoring systems.