Ceftazidime or gentamicin plus benzylpenicillin in neonates less than forty-eight hours old.

A clinical trial was conducted to assess the value of ceftazidime as a first-line antibiotic in a neonatal intensive care unit. Fifty-five infants less than 48 h old with suspected sepsis were randomly treated with ceftazidime or penicillin and gentamicin. A full septic screen was performed in all infants before treatment. Treatment was stopped after 48 h if cultures were sterile. A further 22 infants more than 48 h old, with clinical evidence of sepsis, were treated with ceftazidime in an open trial. Ceftazidime proved effective against all but two of the septicaemias. A group D beta-haemolytic streptococcus and a coagulase-negative staphylococcus proved resistant, but were also resistant to penicillin and gentamicin. No adverse response to ceftazidime was noted, and the incidence of later candidiasis was similar to that after other broad-spectrum antibiotic combinations. The avoidance of gentamicin assay in the ceftazidime group was an advantage in this age group.