Most clinicians followed a new protocol for managing early-onset sepsis for preterm infants but a fifth of preterm infants received antibiotics for longer than necessary.

Early-onset sepsis (EOS) has been associated with a particularly high rate of mortality and morbidity in preterm neonates1,2 and many patients receive empirical antibiotics at birth, regardless of whether they have an infection. A previous study at our tertiary care hospital in Rouen, France, found that antibiotics and gastric aspirate cultures were overused in preterm patients during their first days of life.3 That is why we devised a new protocol to reduce their use, and the duration of the treatment, when an infection had not been confirmed. This study assessed the impact of this new protocol on the occurrence of EOS, treatment duration and protocol adherence.