Antibiotic Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of Neonatal Sepsis.

Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed medications in neonatal intensive care units. Preterm and term infants are commonly exposed to antibiotics: before birth via transplacental intrapartum maternal exposures, at birth due to suspected early-onset sepsis, or due to suspected late-onset sepsis in the first weeks to months of a neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization. Antibiotic selection requires assessment of infection timing and associated microbiology patterns, patient-specific factors (eg, colonization status, source of infection), and antibiotic resistance concerns. In this article, we summarize basic concepts relevant to neonatal antimicrobial pharmacology and available neonatal-specific pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic data for commonly-used antibiotic agents.