Venous catheter related infections: incidence and other factors

Arturo Ferrer Espín; Enrico Macías Garrido; Javier Meza Cardona; Ricardo Cabrera Jardines; Federico Rodríguez Weber; Enrique Díaz Greene; Martha Moreno Hernández; Yolanda Ramírez Hernández

2008, Number 2

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Med Int Mex 2008; 24 (2)

Venous catheter related infections: incidence and other factors

Ferrer EA, Macías GE, Meza CJ, Cabrera JR, Rodríguez WF, Díaz GE, Moreno HM, Ramírez HY

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Language: Spanish
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Page: 112-119
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ABSTRACT

Background: The most frequent intranosocomial infections are related with the use of intravascular catheters. Nonetheless, their use brings benefits to the patients with IV therapy including fluid, drugs and parenteral nutrition administration.
Objective: To determine the incidence rate and the main characteristics of infections related with intravascular therapy (IVT-IR) in Hospital Angeles Pedregal.
Patients and methods: A clinical, descriptive, consecutive sampling, observational, open-label, longitudinal and prospective report. Patients who where placed any non-short intravascular catheter, by central, peripheral, or umbilical ways in Hospital Angeles Pedregal from January 1st to December 31 during 2005. Observation and diagnosis followed the guidelines according to the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) definitions through active monitoring by specialized personal in intravascular catheter handling.
Results: In the established period, 15,444 patients were admitted to the hospital. During that time there were 1,472 catheters installed to 1,160 patients. Only 64.39% (n = 709) were cultured. In addition, 32 infections were registered, representing 2.17% of the installed catheters. From 1,000 days-catheter, 3.29 cases were located; the jugular was the most frequent infected place. The infection peak was presented within days 7 to 10, when 12 (4.83%) patients were infected. 265 (18%) three-way catheters were installed, when 10 (3.77%) of them where infected.
Conclusions: Intravascular catheter installation, its relation and frequency to infections in Hospital Angeles del Pedregal, is placed below of the NNIS established median. After reviewing the results of the present work, we conclude that best practice in intravascular access should be the one which is installed in the subclavian region, which is a one-way catheter and it will be exposed for less than 7 days.