Septic Shock in Neonates

Abstract

Every year 1.6 million of newborn infants die from sepsis (Lawn et al 2000). The prevalence of sepsis, meningitis, and other confirmed bacterial infections has been estimated to range between 1 to 5/1000 live births. Preterm infants are 20 times more likely to get infection than term infants with a prevalence of 1/230 (Haque KN 2003). Very low birth weight infants, evaluated and treated for infections are around 50% of all admissions to neonatal intensive care (Stoll et al 2003). Sepsis is responsible for 30–80% increased risk of neuro-developmental impairment and 30–100% increase in odds for poor head growth and long term morbidity (Stoll et al 2004). 45% of late deaths in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are caused by an infectiouse disease (Ince 2005). Despite assistance progress, mortality rates from sepsis have not declined over the last three decades (Haque 2003). While the incidence of sepsis is known, the true incidence of septic shock in neonates has not been well documented. It is estimated to be around 1–5% of all infants with proven severe sepsis (Haque 2004). Kermorvant-Duchemin E. et al.(2008) reported septic shock in 1.3% of extremely low birth weight newborns with an associated mortality peaking at 71%. 2.