Infections of GBS's etiology and use of perinatal antibiotic prophylaxis

Abstract

Objective. The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of an antibiotic prophylaxis in order to reduce perinatal percentage of early-symptomatic infections in newborn infants. Materials and method. Material for the study was obtained from the medical records of 1,328 live born individual infants and their mothers. Tested continuous parameters were described with the appropriate numbers, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, median and minimum and maximum values. For analysis of fractions the Chi square was used; also with Yates correction (for a small number of cells). Level of statistical significance -p<0.05. Results. The duration of pregnancy in mothers who gave birth to newborns without evidence of GBS infection was significantly longer than the duration of pregnancy in mothers whose infants were infected with Group B streptococcus (GBS) (39.2 vs 38.3 weeks gestation). In 13 infants infected during delivery, antibiotic prophylaxis was not used (92.86%), while it was used in only one case (7.14%). Perinatal prophylaxis was used in 26.81% of the surveyed mothers. Conclusions. The use of maternal antibiotic prophylaxis can have an impact on lowering the percentage of GBS infections in newborn infants. A trend of reducing the proportion of earlysymptomatic infections has been observedin recent years. The type of delivery does not seem to have a decisive influence on the incidence of GBS-based infection. The colour of the amniotic fluid does not determine the presence of the GBS infection.