| Methods |
Single‐centre RCT (USA) |
| Participants |
Quote: "All adult patients who were not known to be allergic to chlorhexidine, silver, or sulphonamides and were scheduled to receive a central venous catheter for short‐term use were eligible to participate. Catheters should be in place for at least 8 hours and culturable." |
| Interventions |
C‐SS‐impregnated CVCs versus non‐impregnated CVCs |
| Outcomes |
Clinical sepsis ("bloodstream infection: catheter and non‐catheter related"), CRBSI, catheter colonization and adverse effects |
| Notes |
Sources of funding: industry (catheter manufacturer or distributor) |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Quote: "Each catheter included was assigned via a blinded preset randomization schedule to be a control catheter or an antiseptic catheter." |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Low risk |
Quote: "Each catheter included was assigned via a blinded preset randomization schedule to be a control catheter or an antiseptic catheter." |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Quote: "The patients' physicians and nurses, the principal investigator, and the research microbiologist who processed all cultures were blinded to each study catheter's group." |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias)
Microbiological outcomes like catheter colonization |
Low risk |
Quote: "The patients' physicians and nurses, the principal investigator, and the research microbiologist who processed all cultures were blinded to each study catheter's group." |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias)
Clinical outcomes like CRBSI |
Low risk |
Quote: "The patients' physicians and nurses, the principal investigator, and the research microbiologist who processed all cultures were blinded to each study catheter's group." |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Low risk |
The authors stated that the criteria for inclusion in analysis were that the catheter should be in place for at least 8 hours and be culturable. It appeared that all catheters that met these criteria were included in the analysis |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Low risk |
The major outcomes specified in the Methods, namely, clinical sepsis ("bloodstream infection: catheter and non‐catheter related"), CRBSI, catheter colonization and adverse effects were reported in sufficient detail in the Results. Although not specifically stated as the aim of this study, the authors put forward a cost effectiveness evaluation in the results based on various assumptions about the rate of bacteraemia in the control group. The data were unsuitable for meta‐analysis, so we have reported them narratively in our Results |
| Other bias |
Low risk |
None identified |
