The Neonatal Conjunctivitis

Kim, Byung Lae; Choi, Tae Hoon; Lee, Ha Bum

Abstract

Conjunctivitis of the newborn is the term for any conjunctivitis with discharge occurring during the first 28 days of life. We had retrospective study of the microbiologic culture of the 113 cases of neonatal conjunctivitis. We evaluated causative organisms, difference of the causative organisms between two delivery methods, and antibiotic sensitivities. We studied the used agents, time of application, and patients of the prophylactic methods in 199 hospitals. Organisms were isolated in 101(89.3%) cases of the 113 neonatal conjunctivitis patients. S aureus was the most common infectious cause of conjunctivitis of the newborn, with 52(46%) isolates, followed by coagulase- negative staphylococci, E. coli, H. influenzae but N. gonorrhoea was isolated in only one case(0.9%). Species of the frequently isolated organisms were not significantly different between the cases of the casarean section delivery method and the normal vaginal delivery methods(p=0.11). The S. aureus, the most commonly isolated organism, was low sensitive to penicillin(14.6%), tetracycline(6.7%), and erythromycin(14.6%). Ocular prophylaxis is practiced in 181(91%) hospitals. The most commonly used method was tetracycline in 86(43.2%) hospitals, followed by erythromycin in 27(13.6%) hospitals, AgNO3 in 24(12%) hospitals. The neonatal conjunctivitis is a easily treated benign disease but the most of causative organisms are infected during the neonatal care so that these infections could be minimized by improving methods of infection control. Also the incidence of the nenatal conjunctivitis would be reduced by the agent that have not evidence of bacterial resistance because of the Gram positive bacterias are highly resistant to erythromycin and tetracyclined.