Observational studyEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2018
Association between duration of intravenous antibiotic administration and early-life microbiota development in late-preterm infants.
Observational study in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 71 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
71 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 105 citations in OpenAlex.
- European Consensus Guidelines on the Management of Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 2025.Neonatology · 2026Guideline
- The effect of antibiotics on the intestinal microbiota in children - a systematic review.Frontiers in allergy · 2024Pooled it
- The impact of neonatal intensive care unit antibiotics on gut bacterial microbiota of preterm infants: a systematic review.Frontiers in microbiomes · 2023Pooled it
- Probiotic Supplementation During the Perinatal and Infant Period: Effects on Gut Dysbiosis and Disease.Nutrients · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of prebiotics on sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, mortality, feeding intolerance, time to full enteral feeding, length of hospital stay, and stool frequency in preterm infants: a meta-analysis.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2019Pooled it
- A systematic review of the factors influencing microbial colonization of the preterm infant gut.Gut microbesPooled it
- The impact of prophylactic azithromycin on the developing preterm gut microbiome and resistome.Gut microbes · 2026Trial
- Trial
- A synbiotic intervention modulates meta-omics signatures of gut redox potential and acidity in elective caesarean born infants.BMC microbiology · 2021Trial
- Antibiotic exposure in culture-negative preterm infants: a 10-year single-centre study.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Neonatal enteral antibiotics reduce gut inflammation and delay systemic immune development in preterm pigs.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Factors influencing preterm infant microbiota and their role in wheezing development.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Article
- Gut microbiota development, antibiotic resistome, and related perinatal factors in early infancy.mSystems · 2025Article
- Management of Neonates in the Special Care Nursery and Its Impact on the Developing Gut Microbiota: A Comprehensive Clinical Review.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Microbiota-Modulating Strategies in Neonates Undergoing Surgery for Congenital Gastrointestinal Conditions: A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Progression of gut microbiome in preterm infants during the first three months.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Potential Impact of Antibiotic Exposure on the Microbiome and Human Health.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Brief early antibiotic exposure (≤2 days) is not associated with disruption of gut microbiome in very low birth weight infants.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Early life microbiome disbalance impacts neuroendocrine outcomes in pre-pubertal mice in a sexually dimorphic manner.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Antibiotic treatment is common practice in the neonatal ward for the prevention and treatment of sepsis, which is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in preterm infants. Although the effect of antibiotic treatment on microbiota development is well recognised, little attention has been paid to treatment duration. We studied the effect of short and long intravenous antibiotic administration on intestinal microbiota development in preterm infants. Faecal samples from 15 preterm infants (35 ± 1 weeks gestation and 2871 ± 260 g birth weight) exposed to no, short (≤ 3 days) or long (≥ 5 days) treatment with amoxicillin/ceftazidime were collected during the first six postnatal weeks. Microbiota composition was determined through 16S rRNA gene sequencing and by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Short and long antibiotic treat ment significantly lowered the abundance of Bifidobacterium right after treatment (p = 0.027) till postnatal week three (p = 0.028). Long treatment caused Bifidobacterium abundance to remain decreased till postnatal week six (p = 0.009). Antibiotic treatment was effective against members of the Enterobacteriaceae family, but allowed Enterococcus to thrive and remain dominant for up to two weeks after antibiotic treatment discontinuation. Community richness and diversity were not affected by antibiotic treatment, but were positively associated with postnatal age (p < 0.023) and with abundance of Bifidobacterium (p = 0.003). Intravenous antibiotic administration during the first postnatal week greatly affects the infant's gastrointestinal microbiota. However, quick antibiotic treatment cessation allows for its recovery. Disturbances in microbiota development caused by short and, more extensively, by long antibiotic treatment could affect healthy development of the infant via interference with maturation of the immune system and gastrointestinal tract.
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