Neonatal Procalcitonin Intervention Study

In neonates, clinical signs and symptoms associated with early-onset sepsis are non-specific and currently available tests have poor positive and negative predictive values. The investigators hypothesize that procalcitonin (PCT) has a reliable negative predictive values to allow a reduction in duration of empiric antibiotic therapy in suspected neonatal early-onset sepsis with unchanged outcome. This study is designed as a multi-center, prospective, randomized intervention trial. The duration of antibiotic therapy in the standard group is based on the attending physician\'s assessment of the probability of infection during hospitalisation. In the PCT group, if infection is considered to be unlikely or possible, antibiotic therapy is discontinued when two consecutive PCT values are within the normal range.