Table 1.
Patients’ characteristics according to the study period
| Early term Non-guided |
Late term Ultrasound-guided |
P-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of patients | 235 | 160 | – | |
| Median age (range)* | 59 (19–85) | 53 (20–78) | < 0.0001 | |
| Gender (female/male)* | 122/133 | 101/59 | 0.0018 | |
| Insertion duration*, median (range) [days] | 26 (2–126) | 18 (2–104) | < 0.0001 | |
| Charlson comorbidity index | 2.9 (0–11) | 2.8 (0–8) | 0.681 | |
| Hospitalization days | 90 (1–318) | 66 (3–308) | 0.0002 | |
| Total observation [catheter days] | 7210 | 3231 | – | |
| Site direction (%) | Right | 76.3 | 78.1 | 0.599 |
| Left | 17.5 | 14.6 | ||
| Insertion site (%) | Internal jugular | 22.8 | 32.5 | < 0.0001 |
| Subclavian* | 44.7 | 19.9 | ||
| Femoral | 31.1 | 33.8 | ||
| Others | 0.4 | 13.2 | ||
| Number of lumens (%) | Single | 2.2 | 9.3 | 0.0348 |
| Double* | 86.4 | 68.2 | ||
| Triple | 8.3 | 15.2 | ||
| Others | 1.3 | 0.7 | ||
| Usage of PICC*, among all cases (%) | 0.4 | 13.2 | 0.0003 | |
*P < 0.05