Effect of Catheter Dwell Time on Risk of Central Line–Associated Bloodstream Infection in Infants

Pediatrics December 2015

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Greenberg RG, Cochran KM, Smith PB, Edson BS, Schulman J, Lee HC, Govindaswami B, Pantoja A, Hardy D, Curran J, Lin D, Kuo S, Noguchi A, Itmann P, Duncan S, Gupta M, Piccarillo A, Karna P, Cohen M, Giuliano M, Carroll S, Page B, Guzman-Cottrill J, Walker

Central venous catheters in the NICU are associated with significant morbidity and mortality because of the risk of central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of catheter dwell time on risk of CLABSI. Increased dwell time was not associated with increased risk of CLABSI for PICCs. For tunneled catheters, infection incidence was significantly higher in weeks 7 and 9 compared with week 1.