Purpose: To study the intravascular catheter related infections (CRI) since January of 1998 to January of 1999 in our hospital.
Methods: We studied 540 catheter tips using a modified combination of the cuantitative method of Cleri and the semicuantitative method of Maki. The catheters were classified into two groups according to the presence or absence of criteria for CRI.
Results: 74.5% of the retired catheters because of infection suspice did not satisfied criteria for CRI. 44.7% of the patients with criteria suffered a catheter-related bacteriemia while just 1.7% of the patients without criteria suffered a bacteriemia. The most common isolated microorganisms were coagulase-negative Staphylococci, Corynebacterium species and S. aureus.
Discussion and conclusions: At least, 74.5% of the patients with a suspice of catheter related infection could undergo a non invasive diagnosis procedure that would have showed that the catheter was not infected.