Association of thrombocytopenia with specific organism and mortality in neonatal sepsis

Neonatal sepsis is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Knowing the association of thrombocytopenia to the specific organism can help to choose the correct antibiotic before a culture sensitivity report becomes available. Hence, this study was planned to find out if thrombocytopenia is associated with any specific type of organism in neonatal sepsis and higher mortality.Method: It was a retrospective observational study done at the neonatal intensive care unit at Patan Hospital. The samples were taken over three years, from April 2018 to March 2021. All culture-positive sepsis within the study period were included. The cases whose files were missing were excluded. Neonatal sepsis was defined as cases where a blood culture was positive for the organism. The data was analyzed using SPSS 16.Result: There were 51 cases whose analysis was done. Klebsiella 25(49.02%) and Acinetobacter 11(21.57%) were the most common organisms. Fifty-nine percent of cases had thrombocytopenia among which 5(10%), 6(12%), and 19(37%) had mild, moderate, and severe thrombocytopenia, respectively. Klebsiella sepsis was significantly associated with thrombocytopenia (p-value 0.001). The sensitivity of Klebsiella to Meropenem and Colistin was 70% and 100% respectively. Mortality was not associated with thrombocytopenia.Conclusion: In the study, thrombocytopenia was associated with Klebsiella sepsis in neonates. Hence, in thrombocytopenic patients with clinical suspicion of sepsis, proper antibiotics to cover Klebsiella should be started empirically till a blood culture report becomes available.