Prevention of Central Venous Catheter-related Infection in the Intensive Care Unit

In the USA, more than five million patients require central venous access each year. Unfortunately, central venous access can be associated with adverse events that are hazardous to patients and expensive to treat. Infection remains the main complication of intravascular catheters in critically ill patients. Catheter-related bloodstream infections have been reported to occur in 3 to 8 % of inserted catheters and are the first cause of nosocomial bloodstream infection in intensive care units (ICUs), with 80,000 cases annually at a cost of $300 million to $2.3 billon [1]. Additional financial costs may be as high as $30,000 per survivor, including one extra week in the ICU and two to three additional weeks in the hospital. Attributable mortality rates range from 0 to 35 %, depending on the degree of control for severity of illness.