Septicemia in neonates and early infancy

A detailed clinico-pathological study of 82 bacteriologically confirmed cases of septicemia was performed—55 cases were in neonates (A1) and 27 cases were in early infancy (A2). Male babies with low birth weight predominated (64·9%). The bacteriological study of the blood culture revealed pure gram negative bacilli were the causative agent in 86·6 per cent of the cases. Of these P. aeruginosa was most common followed by Klebsiella and E. coli. The clinical features were statistically analysed in the two age groups (A 1 and A 2) and with the causative agents. This showed tachypnoea (p<0·05) and fever (p<0·01) were mostly seen in A2 group and in septicemia due to organisms other than P. aeruginosa. “Noma” was exclusively found in neonates (A1) (p<0·01). Diarrhea was significant feature of neonatal pseudomonas septicemia whereas fever was present in the early infancy age-group suffering from septicemia with organisms other than P. aeruginosa. The associated findings, blood count, CSF changes and radiology are discussed and highlighed.