Life-threatening anaphylactic shock due to chlorhexidine on the central venous catheter: a case series

Meilin Weng; Minmin Zhu; Wankun Chen; Changhong Miao

Life-threatening anaphylactic shock due to chlorhexidine on the central venous catheter: a case series

Int J Clin Exp Med. 2014 Dec 15;7(12):5930-6. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Meilin Weng¹, Minmin Zhu¹, Wankun Chen¹, Changhong Miao¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Anaesthesiology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center No. 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai 200032, China ; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University No. 270 Dong'an Road, Shanghai 200032, China.

PMID: 25664137
PMCID: PMC4307584

Abstract

In this article, we report two life-threatening anaphylactic shocks by an antiseptic coated central venous catheter (CVC) within a 6-month period in our cancer center. Anaphylactic shock was preceded immediately after insertion of a central venous catheter (CVC) coated with silver sulphadiazine and chlorhexidine acetate (Blue FlexTip(®) ARROWg(+)ard Blue(®), 14Ga, Arrow International, Inc. USA). Though antiseptic coated CVC anaphylaxis has been reported in Japan, Europe and America, to our knowledge, this is first reported in China. We present these rare cases to remind clinicians about hypersensitivity to chlorhexidine that could potentially be life-threatening.

Keywords: Chlorhexidine; anaphylactic shock; central venous catheter.

Publication types

Case Reports