Culture Positive Cases of Ophthalmia Neonatorum in a Tertiary Care Centre of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Ophthalmia neonatorum although runs a benign course mostly, sometimes may progress to sight threatening complications. The study was conducted to find the prevalence of culture positive cases of opthalmia neonatorum. METHODS: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care center from January to December 2019. Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional review committee of Kathmandu Medical College. Convenience sampling was done. All data were entered into excel and, then for analysis, exported to Statistal Package for Social Sciences version 21. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of culture positive cases of opthalmia neonaturum is 10 (55.55%) (32.61-78.49 at 95% Confidence Interval). The causative organisms were coagulase negative Staphylococcus 4 (40%), Staphylococcus aureus 3 (30%), Klebsiella 2 (20%) and Pseudomonas 1 (10%). Culture sensitivity of the isolated organisms were different according to the patient even in case of the same organism. Vancomycin 7 (70%) was the most sensitive antibiotic followed by Ciprofloxacin 6 (60%), Amikacin 5 (50%) and Cloxacillin 5 (50%) while Azithromycin 1 (10%), Cefixime 1 (10%) and Cotrimoxazole 1 (10%) were the least sensitive. CONCLUSIONS: Staphylococcus species was the most common organism isolated from neonates with ophthalmia neonatorum and vancomycin was the most sensitive antibiotic.