Impact of oligon central venous catheters on catheter colonization and catheter-related bloodstream infection

tional benzalkonium-treated double-lumen central venous cathe ter, while patients in the oligon group received an oligon-treated (polyurethane combined with silver, carbon, and platinum) cath eter with the same characteristics. Data collection included de mographics, preexisting clinical conditions, main pathology, cath eter insertion, and management data. Catheter colonization was defined as the growth of ≥15 colony-forming units in culture of catheter segments by the roll-plate method, or ≥1000 colonyforming units for the sonication method, and catheter-related bloodstream infection was defined as isolation of the same or- risk factors ganism from the colonized catheter and from the peripheral blood of a patient with clinical signs of bloodstream infection. Measurements and Main Results: Data were obtained from 545 catheters. Of these, 132 catheters (24.2%) were positive for col onization. Patients in the oligon group demonstrated a lower risk for catheter colonization in the overall population (relative risk, 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.46—0.86; p = .003) and in the surgical subgroup (relative risk, 0.5; 95% confidence interval, 0.33—0.76; p = .001). Significant differences between groups were detected for coagulase-negative staphylococci and Gramnegative bacilli colonization rates. Twenty-one patients (3.8%) were positive for catheter-related bloodstream infection, without significant differences between control and oligon groups. Conclusions: Oligon treatment is effective in limiting the cath eter colonization rate. Due to the limited amount of events, this study lacked the power to detect significant differences in terms of catheter-related bloodstream infection rate. (Crit Care Med 2003; 31:52—59)