The problematic of administering antimicrobials in newborns

Resumen

The use of antimicrobials is frequent in the newborn, what requires care in its administration. The aim of this research was to verify the association among the following variables: gender, weight, gestational age, indication of antimicrobials and alterations occurred during newborns’ therapy in a neonatal unit. It is a transversal, descriptive study, conducted in a neonatal unit. The sample was composed of 94 newborns from January through June, 2006. The data were collected through a form and presented in charts. One adopted the level of signifi cance of 5% for the associations. The association between gestational age and indication of antibiotic was signifi cant with p-0.0001. We concluded that changes occurred while the newborns were younger than 37 weeks of gestational age were statistically signifi cant.