Table 1. Vascular access characteristics.
| Heparin (n = 545) | Taurolidine (n = 200) | p-value | |
| Duration of HPN/fluid use before creation catheter (days: median (25th–75th percentile)) | 214 (34–765) | 564 (103–1489) | 0.000* |
| Unknown (n (%)) | 7 (1) | 0 (0) | |
| Type of vascular access (n (%)) | 0.536 | ||
| Hickman | 368 (68) | 140 (70) | |
| Port à cath | 177 (32) | 60 (30) | |
| Place of catheter insertion (n (%)) | 0.000* | ||
| Subclavian vein | 337 (62) | 57 (29) | |
| Jugular vein | 63 (12) | 105 (52) | |
| Femoral vein | 33 (6) | 19 (9) | |
| Inferior caval vein | 13 (2) | 6 (3) | |
| Unknown | 99 (18) | 13 (7) | |
| Catheter survival (days) | 0.000* | ||
| Median (25th–75th percentile) | 120 (43–310) | 209 (65–611) | |
| Total number of catheter days of all catheters | 147,842 | 71,112 | |
| Number of catheters still in place (n (%)) | 0.000* | ||
| Yes | 1 (0) | 80 (40) | |
| No | 544 (100) | 120 (60) | |
| Composition of infusional fluid (n (%)) | 0.380 | ||
| HPN alone | 290 (53) | 118 (59) | |
| Fluid alone | 30 (6) | 16 (8) | |
| HPN & fluid | 178 (32) | 61 (31) | |
| Unknown | 47 (9) | 5 (2) | |
| HPN/fluid administration frequency, per week (n (%)) | 0.529 | ||
| 1 | 3 (1) | 1 (1) | |
| 2 | 5 (1) | 4 (2) | |
| 3 | 32 (6) | 14 (7) | |
| 4 | 34 (6) | 18 (9) | |
| 5 | 50 (9) | 21 (11) | |
| 6 | 44 (8) | 11 (5) | |
| 7 | 319 (58) | 111 (55) | |
| Unknown | 58 (11) | 20 (10) | |
| Immune suppressive use (n (%)) | 0.121 | ||
| Yes | 83 (15) | 41 (21) | |
| No | 437 (80) | 154 (77) | |
| Unknown | 25 (5) | 5 (2) | |
| Anticoagulant use (n (%)) | 0.932 | ||
| Yes | 288 (53) | 111 (55) | |
| No | 220 (40) | 83 (42) | |
| Unknown | 37 (7) | 6 (3) |
Variables are shown per vascular access. Patients may have had multiple vascular accesses, total number of patients assessed is 212 (Figure 1). Characteristics were presented as number of events (n) with percentage (%) or median with 25th and 75th percentile. A p-value lower than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.