An Evaluation of Catheter Related Infections

Central Venous Catheters (CVCs) have revolutionized treatment protocol for patients with cancer. CVCs are inserted directly into large blood vessels, making administration of chemotherapy and blood products easy and effective. Unfortunately, the rate of CVC related infections is high, and consequences of infections in immunocompromised chemotherapy patients can be devastating. Thus, it is important to look at factors that are correlated with an increased risk of infection so that protocol can be enacted to reduce the infection rate. The purpose of this study was to describe factors that lead to an increased rate of infection, specifically in the pediatric oncology population. A cross sectional descriptive design was used to evaluate infection rates and potential factors that might influence the occurrence of infections in 106 pediatric patients at the Arizona Health Sciences Center who had a central catheter and had been diagnosed with a malignancy or Langerhans cell histocytosis. A chart review was conducted to collect data on demographic and treatment related factors. Demographic data included gender, diagnosis, age at diagnosis, height and weight, type of catheter, provider placing the catheter (pediatric surgeons, interventional radiology, etc.) and total number of catheter days. For patients with positive cultures, data was collected on the number of catheter days at the time of positive culture, and the inpatient or outpatient status at the time the positive culture was identified. Data on the type of organism recovered, the treatment, and the ANC and platelet count at the time of positive culture was analyzed. Chi squared tests were conducted comparing patients with positive and