Neonatal conjunctivitis causes several ophthalmological consequences in the affected children such as blindness. Some of the common complications of the neonatal conjunctivitis include pseudofollicular formation in tarsal conjunctiva, nasolacrimal obstruction and blindness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of neonatal conjunctivitis.

This cross sectional study was approved by ethical committee and was conducted on neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The records of all children were referred from 2002 t 2012 were evaluated. Data were entered SPSS version 16 and were analyzed.

3678 neonates were enrolled the study. 93 (2.5%) had conjunctivitis. Their mean gestational age was 34±2 weeks. Mean hospitalization duration in was 17±12 days. 77 children (82.7%) were low birth weight neonates. 19 neonates (20.4%) had septicemia and 24 (25.8%) had low Apgar score. 27 children (29%) maternal genitourinary infections. The most common microorganisms were E. coli (45%), staphylococcus epidermis (29%), Klebsiella (17%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9%).

the prevalence of neonatal conjunctivitis was 2.5% in our study and low birth weight and prematurity, maternal genitourinary infections, low Apgar score and septicemia were the main risk factors.