Table 4.

Sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, and reinstitution of antibiotic treatments at baseline and in the intervention period.

Variables	Baseline (n = 111)	Intervention (n = 119)	p
Early-onset sepsis, n (%)	3 (3)	4 (3)	0.93
Late-onset sepsis, n (%)	20 (18)	17 (14)	0.44
Culture-negative sepsis, n (%)	24 (22)	13 (11)	0.04
Necrotizing enterocolitis, n (%) †	1 (1)	4 (3)	0.20
Reinstitution of an antibiotic treatment, n (%)	26 (23)	23 (19)	0.55
Reasons for the reinstitution of an antibiotic treatment, n (%) §     Culture-proven sepsis     Suspect of sepsis     Surgical prophylaxis	5 (19) 17 (65) 4 (15)	7 (30) 14 (61) 2 (9)	0.56 0.98 0.78
Total case fatalities, n (%)	11 (10)	17 (14)	0.41

Sepsis due to coagulase-negative staphylococci were eight at baseline and two in the intervention period. † Bell’s stage ≥ 2. § percent rates were calculated only on the total number of antibiotic treatments re-instituted.