Conjunctival microbiota and antibiotics resistance in preterm newborns hospitalized in neonatal intensive care unit

Purpose: To analyze the conjunctival bacterial flora and the antibiotics resistance pattern in preterm newborns at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in "Hospital das Clinicas da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE". Methods: Material from the conjunctival sac was obtained from 48 premature infants eyes that stayed at in NICU more than 48 hours. Results: Culture analysis revealed that 40 (83.3%) were positive and the pathogens most commonly isolated included Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (43.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus (25.0%), being 63.9% of the bacteria multiresistant. Antimicrobial test results demonstrated great sensitivity to gatifloxacin (97.2%), vancomycin (94.4%) and ofloxacin (94.4%). Conclusions: Conjunctival bacterial flora among newborns in NICU is varied, mainly Gram-positive, usually multiresistant to antibiotics.