Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Nov 8, 2016; 5(4): 358-364
Published online Nov 8, 2016. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v5.i4.358
Serial physical examinations, a simple and reliable tool for managing neonates at risk for early-onset sepsis
Alberto Berardi, Anna Maria Buffagni, Cecilia Rossi, Eleonora Vaccina, Chiara Cattelani, Lucia Gambini, Federica Baccilieri, Francesca Varioli, Fabrizio Ferrari
Alberto Berardi, Anna Maria Buffagni, Eleonora Vaccina, Chiara Cattelani, Lucia Gambini, Federica Baccilieri, Francesca Varioli, Fabrizio Ferrari, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Department of Mother and Child, Policlinic University Hospital, 41124 Modena, Italy
Cecilia Rossi, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Department of Obstetric and Pediatric, Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova, 42121 Emilia, Italy
Author contributions: All authors made substantive intellectual contributions to the published study and approved the current version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: In this study we have no institutional review board statement.
Informed consent statement: All details that might disclose the identity of the subjects under study were omitted or anonymized.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose. No authors received an honorarium, grant, or other form of payment to produce the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No data were created no data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Alberto Berardi, MD, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Department of Mother and Child, Policlinic University Hospital, Avenue del Pozzo, 71, 41124 Modena, Italy. berardi.alberto@policlinico.mo.it
Telephone: +39-059-4224921 Fax: +39-059-4223770
Received: June 8, 2016
Peer-review started: June 14, 2016
First decision: July 29, 2016
Revised: August 6, 2016
Accepted: October 1, 2016
Article in press: October 9, 2016
Published online: November 8, 2016
Processing time: 151 Days and 18.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The management of asymptomatic neonates at-risk for early-onset sepsis (EOS) remains a challenge. Algorithms based on the threshold values of risk factors result in a large number of uninfected newborns being evaluated and treated. In a 4-mo, multicenter retrospective cohort study, we evaluated a strategy based on serial physical examinations (SPEs) instead of sepsis workup. We studied 2092 neonates. Among 216 neonates initially managed through SPEs, only 12 (5.6%) had subsequently a sepsis workup; only 4 (1.9%) were given empirical antibiotics. All neonates had a normal outcome. SPEs is a simple and reliable tool for managing neonates at risk for EOS.