Clinical Predictors of Port Infections in Adult Patients with Hematologic Malignancies

Abstract

Purpose: To identify clinical predictors of port infections in adult patients with hematologic malignancies.

Materials and methods: A retrospective chart review identified 223 adult patients (age ≥ 18 y) with hematologic malignancies, including lymphoma (n = 163), leukemia (n = 49), and others (n = 11), who had a port placed from 2012 to 2015. Early (< 30 d after port placement) and overall port infections (bloodstream and site infections) were recorded. To elucidate clinical predictors for early and overall port infections, proportional subdistribution hazard regression (PSHREG) analyses were conducted with variables including patients' demographics, medications used, laboratory data, and port characteristics.

Results: Total duration of follow-up was 83,722 catheter-days (median per patient, 274 catheter-days). Early and overall port infections were identified in 8 (3.6%) and 26 (11.7%) patients, respectively. Early and overall infection rates were 1.2 and 0.3 infections/1,000 catheter-days, respectively. Backward stepwise multivariate PSHREG analyses identified hypoalbuminemia (< 3.5 mg/dL) at the time of port placement (hazard ratio = 5.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-22.16; P = .03) and steroid use (> 30 d cumulatively during follow-up period) (hazard ratio = 3.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.55-7.47; P = .002) as independent risk factors for early and overall port infections, respectively.

Conclusions: In adult patients with hematologic malignancies, hypoalbuminemia at the time of port placement was a clinical predictor for early port infections, whereas steroid use was a clinical predictor for overall port infections.