Evaluating safety and effectiveness of the early-onset sepsis calculator to reduce antibiotic exposure in Dutch at-risk newborns: a protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Newborns are at risk for early-onset sepsis (EOS). In the Netherlands, EOS affects less than 0.2% of newborns, but approximately 5% are treated with empirical antibiotics. These numbers form an example of overtreatment in countries using risk-factor based guidelines for administrating antibiotics. An alternative to these guidelines is the EOS calculator, a tool that calculates an individual EOS risk and provides management recommendation. However, validation outside the North-American setting is limited, especially for safety outcomes. We aim to investigate whether EOS calculator use can safely reduce antibiotic exposure in newborns with suspected EOS compared with the Dutch guideline.

Methods and analysis

This protocol describes a cluster randomised controlled

SUBMITTER: van der Weijden BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9930557 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature