Abstract
A positive blood culture with a clinically recognized pathogen remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Debate continues as to whether multiple blood cultures should be performed. Certainly with bacterial organisms that are frequent blood culture contaminants, such as coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), the diagnosis of sepsis is best confirmed by the finding of two or more positive cultures from multiple sites or body fluids that are normally sterile. The isolation of CoNS from only one blood culture when only one is obtained is problematic and of uncertain significance. Since many of these positive cultures represent contamination with skin microflora, the practice of obtaining only one blood culture often leads to prolonged and unnecessary antibiotic therapy. In our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Parkland Memorial Hospital (PMH) in Dallas, Texas, we routinely obtain two blood cultures from all infants who are evaluated for possible sepsis.
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Sánchez, P.J. (2004). Bacterial and Fungal Infections in the Neonate: Current Diagnosis and Therapy. In: Pollard, A.J., McCracken, G.H., Finn, A. (eds) Hot Topics in Infection and Immunity in Children. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 549. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8993-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8993-2_14
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