Rule Out Neonatal Sepsis: The Frequency of Early-Neonatal Infection in Late- Preterm Neonates Related to Maternal Risk Factors

Introduction Sepsis has always been one of the most common complications affecting newborn infants with a high rate of mortality and morbidity during neonatal period. Starting early antibiotic therapy is crucial for treatment success. But incidence of sepsis, in neonate treated for suspected sepsis, is low, exposing in this case not necessary of this babies to antibiotics with all of sides effects (high rate of late sepsis, mortality, and high cost). Purpose To evaluate the most sensitive marker in early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis or rule out early neonatal sepsis in suspected early-onset sepsis neonates (EOS). Material and Methods This single-center, prospective, randomized intervention study conducted in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit, janary 2011-december 2014. All neonate with suspected sepsis were randomly assigned either to standard treatment based on conventional laboratory parameters (standard group) or to PCT-guided treatment (PCT group). Minimum duration of antibiotic therapy was 72-96 h in the standard group, whereas in the PCT group antibiotic therapy was discontinued when two consecutive PCT values were below predefined age-adjusted cut-off values (