[Neonatal sepsis morbidity and mortality in a tertiary care hospital]

To compare the epidemiological, clinical and microbiological profiles between patients with neonatal sepsis who lived or died.

The medical records of patients with neonatal sepsis were retrospectively reviewed at Instituto Nacional de Pediatría (National Pediatric Institute) of Secretaría de Salud (Ministry of Health) in Mexico City, between 1992 and 2000. Neonatal sepsis cases were classified as surviving or not after 90 days of postnatal follow-up. The survivor and decreased groups were compared using Mann-Whitney's U test for continuous variables, and the chi-squared test or the Fisher's exact test for categorical variables. Significantly associated variables were included in a Cox proportional hazards model. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all analyses.

A total of 116 patients with neonatal sepsis were included (65 live and 51 dead). Multivariate analysis showed that fetal distress, respiratory distress, a delayed capillary fill up, a low platelet count, and a positive hemoculture for Klebsiella pneumoniae were significant risk factors for death.

Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and microbiological variables are significant predictors of death in newborns with neonatal sepsis. The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html.