Hospital Admissions After Early-Onset Neonatal Bacterial Infection Management Guidelines in France

Were the 2017 French guidelines on early-onset neonatal bacterial infections (EONIs), which replaced systematic microbiological sampling with clinical monitoring for at-risk asymptomatic newborns, associated with changes in hospitalization rates for neonatal bacterial infections?In this cohort study of 68 107 hospitalizations for EONI, rates of hospitalizations with a nonsevere EONI diagnosis and those without a neonatal intensive care unit admission were significantly lower following the 2017 guidelines. Rates of severe EONI, neonatal intensive care unit admissions, and vertically transmitted late-onset bacterial infections remained unchanged.These findings suggest that the transition to clinical monitoring for at-risk asymptomatic newborns was associated with fewer hospitalizations and no change in severe or late-onset infections.

Corresponding Author: Léna Paucard, MSc, Epidemiology and Modelling of Antibiotic Evasion Team, Institut Pasteur, Université Paris-Cité, 25 Rue du Docteur Roux, 75015 Paris, France (lena.paucard@pasteur.fr).

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