The correlation between in-situ duration of neonatal feeding tubes and the bacterial colonisation

Abstract

Neonates with incompetent immune system in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are at risk of developing infection from microbial colonisation of enteral feeding tubes. The study aimed to identify the bacteria present in the enteral feeding tubes of neonates admitted to the NICU of the Canselor Tuanku Muhriz Hospital Malaysia. The feeding tubes were assessed after being placed in the stomach for 24, 48 and 72 hrs for each neonate. A total of thirty tubes from ten neonates were tested for enumeration of aerobic colony count, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus spp. and presence of Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella spp. The duration of feeding tubes in-situ was not significantly correlated with aerobic colony count, S. aureus, Enterobacteriaceae and Enterococcus spp. colonisation with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient rs of +0.116, -0.146, -0.115, and +0.287 respectively. Klebsiella pneumoniae, Citrobacter freundii, Yersinia enterocolitica, Enterococcus faecium, E. malodoratus, Streptococcus anginosus and Pediococcus pentosocaeus were found in the tested samples and their presence was considered as risk of infection as most being part of Enterobacteriaceae. Cronobacter sakazakii and Salmonella spp. was not detected in any of the tubes. In conclusion, bacterial colonisation in feeding tubes was not associated with duration in-situ for 24, 48 and 72 hrs.