Abstract

Aim: Neonatal sepsis is an infection of the bloodstream in infants under 28 days old. It remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among infants. For this reason, it is important to closely monitor patients and initiate early and effective treatment when sepsis is suspected. In some cases, supportive treatments are needed in addition to appropriate antibiotic therapy to ensure clinical stability. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pentoxifylline (PTX) use as a supportive treatment for neonatal sepsis.

Materials and Methods: Patients who were followed up in our clinic with a diagnosis of sepsis between January 2020 and December 2024 and who had pentoxifylline added to their treatment were included in the study. Patient data were obtained from patient files, the hospital patient record, and the follow-up system, and evaluated retrospectively.

Results: All patients who were followed up for sepsis and treated with pentoxifylline were evaluated. A total of 45 infants were included in the study. Nine patients died due to sepsis in the early period. Therefore, early morbidity outcomes were evaluated based on the remaining 36 patients. Another patient died on the 67th day of life, bringing the total mortality count to 10. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data of the patients were shown in tables. It was observed that the frequency of mortality, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in our patients was higher than the reported national/international averages.

Conclusion: In our study, the mortality and short-term morbidity rates, including necrotizing enterocolitis and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, were found to be higher than those reported in the literature. This may be due to pentoxifylline being administered to patients with impaired circulation and added late to the treatment. Randomized controlled studies with larger patient samples and more homogeneous clinical conditions are needed to more accurately reveal the effect of pentoxifylline on neonatal mortality and morbidity.

Keywords: NICU, pentoxifylline, sepsis, supportive treatment

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open-access article published by Bolu İzzet Baysal Training and Research Hospital under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Uygun SS. Evaluation of the effectiveness of pentoxifylline use in neonatal sepsis. Northwestern Med J. 2025;6(2):103-8. https://doi.org/10.54307/2025.NWMJ.202

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