Neonatal septicemia caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci

We report our experience with coagulase-negative staphylococcal infection over a period of 1 year. The incidence of coagulase-negative staphylococcus septicemia was 4.25% (13 newborn infants) of the 306 admissions to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Ten patients (76.9%) were premature infants. Four infants in our series were less than 48 h of age. Two of these were presumably born with the infection. Six infants had involvement of the lungs. The strains of coagulase-negative staphylococci cultured from all cases of neonatal septicemia were sensitive to cephalothin, but were considerably less sensitive to the currently used antibiotic combinations. Our observations indicate that coagulase-negative staphylococci must be suspected in early or late neonatal sepsis, and that early antibiotic treatment by cephalothin may prevent morbidity.