Abstract
Background
The pediatric definition of bacterial urinary tract infection (UTI) is >50,000 colony forming units (CFU) of a single organism on catheterized culture or 10,000–50,000 CFU with pyuria on urinalysis.
Local problem
The diagnosis of UTI in our NICU is clinician-dependent and not based on the accepted pediatric definition.
Methods
A retrospective review of positive urine cultures between 2015 and 2017 was performed.
Intervention
A treatment guideline for positive urine cultures was adopted and PDSA methodology utilized for incremental improvements.
Results
For 909 pre-intervention neonates, 26 of 38 positive urine cultures were treated for UTI but only 23% (6/26) met the pediatric definition. For 644 post-guideline neonates, only 7 of 25 positive urine cultures were treated and 86% met guideline criteria with no increase in urosepsis.
Conclusions
A guideline to treat positive urine cultures resulted in a decreased rate of UTI diagnosis and thus prevented unnecessary antibiotic exposure.
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Acknowledgements
Dr. Ellen Wald, Dr. Ruthie Su, Dr. Allison Redpath, Dr. Michael Semanik, Dr. Pamela Kling and Dr. Ryan McAdams for their early contributions to the development of the guideline.
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Gorski, D.P., Bauer, A.S., Menda, N.S. et al. Treatment of positive urine cultures in the neonatal intensive care unit: a guideline to reduce antibiotic utilization. J Perinatol 41, 1474–1479 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01079-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01079-6
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