Risk Factors for Nosocomial Infections in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

We report our study to determine factors associated with increased nosocomial infections in neonates hospitalized in NJCU, from January until December, 1992. A total number of 116 infants were studied, 68 (58.6%) of them were male, and 101 (87 .1 %) were less than 6 days old. Forty six infants (39.8%) had a birth weight of2500 g, and 2 (1.7%) were unknown. A total number of64 infants (55.2%) had more than 1 infections, yielding 103 episodes of infection, giving an incidence of 88.8% infection rate. The significant risk factor for nosocomial infections was length of hospital stay. Age, birth weight, gestational age, APGAR scores, use of nasogastric tube or intravenous line, were not statistically significant risk factors. Use of nasogastric tube was associated with increased nosocomial gastroenteritis, compared with use of intravenous lines.

Keywords

• nosocomial infections; neonatal intensive care unit; nicu; apgar score; nasogastric tube;