Örebro Studies in Medicine 186 I
ÖREBRO 2018 2018LO
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louise björkman hjalmarsson was born in 1984 and received her medical degree from Umeå University in 2009. After completing her internship at Skellefteå hospital she was employed at the Department of Paediatrics, Örebro University Hospital and became a specialist in 2016.
During her training in paediatrics she was recruited by Andreas Ohlin and Jens Schollin to the Extremely Preterm infants in Sweden Study (EXPRESS) with a focus on neonatal sepsis and was registered as a PhD student at Örebro University in 2012. In 2015, Louise was awarded the Swedish Young Investigator Award for the article “Scrubbing the hub of intravenous catheters with an alcohol wipe for 15 sec reduced neonatal sepsis” which is included in this thesis. Louise is currently working as a paediatric specialist at the Örebro University Hospital. Neonatal sepsis is a common and severe complication in the neonatal period. This thesis presents five studies, all with the focus on neonatal sepsis. Three studies were based on the EXPRESS study. The first study showed that defi-nite sepsis was associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and prolonged hospital stay. Hygiene routines were investigated in a survey study in which Swedish neonatal units reported improved hygiene routines over time. When the association between incidence in late onset sepsis and hygiene routines were investigated, associations were seen between decreased sepsis risk and strict catheter routines, blood culture routines and the non-use of antibiotic prophylaxis.
Prevention of neonatal sepsis was investigated by implementing the method scrub the hub in one neonatal intensive care unit. The method seems to be an efficient method to prevent sepsis caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci in newborn infants.
The safety of alcohol impregnated port protectors was investigated in an in-vitro study and a risk of isopropanol leakage could be shown.
issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7529-265-6
