title: Early onset neonatal sepsis: diagnostic dilemmas and practical management.
abstract: Early onset neonatal sepsis is persistently associated with poor outcomes, and incites clinical practice based on the fear of missing a treatable infection in a timely fashion. Unnecessary exposure to antibiotics is also hazardous. Diagnostic dilemmas are discussed in this review, and suggestions offered for practical management while awaiting a more rapidly available 'gold standard' test; in an ideal world, this test would be 100% sensitive and 100% specific for the presence of organisms.
authors.affiliation: Neonatal Unit, Birmingham Women's NICU, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Bedford Russell
authors.affiliation: Neonatal Unit, Birmingham Women's NICU, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019468:Disease Management; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D061345:Early Medical Intervention; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: Evidence Based Medicine; Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Microbiology; Neonatology