The Tego™ needleless connector for hemodialysis catheters may protect against catheter colonization

Catheter connectors used in hemodialysis patients are those with open caps to manage high blood flows. However, current guidelines for the prevention of catheter infections recommend closed connectors. Tego™ is a closed connector designed to enable high blood flows. We used an in vitro model to compare the efficacy of Tego™ against contamination with that of standard caps in a real-life practice scenario. The model consisted of 200 blood culture bottles (BCB) with an inserted cannula closed either with Tego™ (100) or with open caps (100). BCB were manipulated using two different methods: under aseptic conditions and with gloves contaminated with a 0.05 McFarland Staphylococcus aureus solution. The BCB were incubated at 37 °C under continuous shaking for up to 7 days or until positive. When a BCB turned positive, 100 μL of the fluid was cultured. The positivity rate and time to positivity of the BCB in each method were compared. Overall, 4.0 % of BCB with Tego™ and 52.0 % of BCB with open caps were positive in the sterile model (p < 0.001), whereas all BCB in the contamination model were positive. We did not find differences regarding the median time (hours) to positivity between Tego™ and the standard cap in the contamination model (19.04 vs. 17.87, p = 0.465). In our model, Tego™ proved to be better than the standard cap for the prevention of contamination when the device was handled under optimal conditions. Moreover, it was as efficient as the standard catheter cap in the contamination model.