Prevention of Catheter and Intravascular Device-Related Infections: A Quality-of-Care Mandate for Institutions and Physicians

摘要

In this issue of-Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Maki et al1 summarize the relative risk of bloodstream infections that result from .various forms of catheters and intravascular devices. Their calculations are based on a review of 200 published prospective observational or clinical trials. The authors point out that their calculations of the infection rates may be slightly high, representing the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval, since they analyzed only studies that took into account all patients with intravascular devices that were prospectively cultured. Nevertheless, their systematic technique for reviewing the literature yields a useful metric for comparing various intravascular appliances and methods of insertion.Catheter- or device-related bloodstream infections are