Interventions to reduce central venous catheter-associated infections in children: which ones are beneficial?

Excerpt

Each year an estimated quarter of a million central venous catheters (CVC) are inserted in England and 5 million in the USA [1, 2]. CVCs are important for monitoring, drug delivery, intravenous feeding and blood sampling for patients receiving critical care. They are also a common cause of hospital-acquired bloodstream infection and hence a major cause of morbidity, mortality and increased healthcare costs. The National Audit Office in the UK suggested that approximately 44% of hospital-acquired bacteraemias were associated with invasive devices, with nearly two-thirds of these related to CVCs [3]. Both adult and paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) have among the highest rates of hospital-acquired bacteraemia of all specialities, with each infection costing an estimated additional US $40,000–46,133 [4]. As many of these infections are preventable, catheter acquired bloodstream infection (CA-BSI) has become a major issue for assessing the quality of care in intensive care units on both sides of the Atlantic [5‐7]. …