AN APPROACH TO PREVENTION OF CONJUNCTIVITIS IN NEONATAL PATIENTS (Atena Editora)

Abstract

Neonatal conjunctivitis is a purulent pathology that affects newborns in the first month of life, being contracted during birth when the child passes through the birth canal, thus having direct contact with the maternal genital secretion that is contaminated with some pathogen, the most common being the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis. Therefore, this work aims to elucidate the main ways to prevent neonatal conjunctivitis. A bibliographical review was carried out, using the descriptors conjunctivitis, neonatal, prevention and prophylaxis, with article searches being carried out in PubMed, Google Scholar and Scielo, in the years 2011 to 2021, in which 22 articles were selected, 3 of which were used for the production of the summary. Considering the review approach, it was possible to observe that untreated neonatal conjunctivitis can cause irreversible damage to the newborn's eye health, and the lack of recommended prophylaxis after one hour of birth of the child diagnosed with conjunctivitis is one of the causes of eye complications. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the use of 1% Silver Nitrate associated with 1% Tetracycline or 0.5% Erythromycin as drugs of choice. Therefore, adequate prenatal care is the main form of prevention, as rapid tests are carried out on pregnant women and these tests detect sexually transmitted diseases, which can cause neonatal conjunctivitis. The present study demonstrated the importance of promoting adequate prenatal care for the prevention of neonatal conjunctivitis. Furthermore, neonatal prophylaxis played an essential role in preventing more severe damage to the newborn.