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. 1985 Feb;201(2):237–241. doi: 10.1097/00000658-198502000-00018

Pulmonary artery catheter infections. A prospective study.

M L Myers, T W Austin, W J Sibbald
PMCID: PMC1250648  PMID: 3882064

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of the Swan-Ganz pulmonary artery catheter, the incidence of catheter tip infection is not well-established. One-hundred and seventy catheter insertions in 113 patients were examined in this prospective study. Using a semiquantitative culture technique, the incidence of positive catheter tip cultures was 5.8%. No significant risk factors for catheter infection were identified, although there was a trend toward more frequent infection in patients not receiving antibiotics (p less than 0.06). Catheter tip infection appeared to result most frequently from a distant focus of infection. Although the overall incidence of positive blood cultures was significantly higher in the positive vs. negative catheter tip groups (37.9% vs. 10.6%, p less than 0.001), blood cultures were generally not a reliable guide to the presence of a catheter tip infection. We conclude that catheter infection can be contained at an acceptable level by following a reasonable protocol for catheter management.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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