This study that relates the internal monitoring and the risk of death from neonatal sepsis, although it was published in 1997, I have not found that it has at any time been refuted by subsequent studies. I find it enormously interesting precisely now that our country is adapting birth care protocols to the recommendations of the World Health Organization. I am sure that it will soon be incorporated into the working groups that analyze the follow-up of the Birth Attention Strategy.
It was performed by researchers from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle.
The objective was to determine if the neonatal mortality from streptococcal septicemia Group B early (GBS) could be associated with obstetric factors in addition to the already known birth weight.
The medical reports of this institution were used for all newborns with positive blood cultures for GBS in the first 7 days of life between January 1981 and December 1992. All newborns had received intravenous antibiotics from the broad -Spectrum within 3 hours after birth.
A significant association was found between Neonatal mortality and birth weight. The other significant associations agreed with data from positive spinal brain fluid culture and also with the invasive fetal monitoring by electrodes on the scalp during the intrapartum.
These and other variables were analyzed, reaching the following conclusion: the chances of death for children with internal monitoring by electrodes on the scalp were 8 times higher compared to those who had GBS septicemia but who had not received the same type of internal monitoring.
In conclusion, the association between neonatal mortality due to early septicemia of GBS and internal monitoring by electrode insertion in the scalp considered it extremely pausible and recommended that this line of research continue. I have not found, for now, further studies that extend or contradict these conclusions. But I promise to keep you informed of any other study, for or against, that it locates.
