Duration of empirical therapy in neonatal bacterial meningitis with third generation cephalosporin: a multicenter retrospective study

Introduction The duration of treatment is not well established, especially in the negative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of duration of treatment in neonatal bacterial meningitis. Material and methods This is a retrospective analysis of 200 CSF specimens. Two hundred full-term neonates with bacterial meningitis admitted to the clinical status were evaluated using the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) on the day of discharge. Results Neonates were identified as having bacterial meningitis based on the results of CSF culture tests of all suspected cases. According to the GOS, neonates were divided into two outcome groups: 77.5% good (GOS = 5) (shorter than 3 weeks’ administration) and 22.5% unfavorable (GOS = 1–4) (longer than 3 weeks’ administration). The duration of antibiotic treatment ranged from 4 to 43 days, and the mean therapy time was 19.74 ±7.32 days. Duration longer than 3 weeks for neonatal bacterial meningitis with negative CSF culture had no impact on prognosis. The unfavorable outcome group had more prenatal infections and premature rupture of membranes cases than the good outcome group. High CSF protein and CSF glucose and CSF cell count increase were associated with unfavorable outcome in 167 non-prenatal infection infants. High CSF cell count increase was associated with unfavorable outcome in 33 prenatal infection infants. In term infants, the positive rate of blood cultures was 24.5%. Conclusions Third generation cephalosporin therapy does not have a different prognosis for negative CSF culture of neonatal bacterial meningitis in term infants in this study.