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Scientific article
English

Peripheral venous catheters: an under-evaluated problem

Contributors

Zingg, Walter; Pittet, Didier

Published in

International journal of antimicrobial agents, vol. 34, no. Suppl 4, p. S38-42

Publication date

2009

Abstract

Peripheral venous catheters (PVC) are the most frequently used invasive devices in hospitals. Up to 70% of patients require a peripheral venous line during their hospital stay, and conservative estimates suggest that PVC days account for 15-20% of total patient days in acute care hospitals. Most published studies focus on thrombophlebitis and address the issue of scheduled catheter change, but there is still no consensus on the optimal time point for PVC change, or whether catheter replacement is required at all. Although PVC-associated catheter-related bloodstream infections (PVC-BSI) are far more serious than thrombophlebitis, few studies address this issue, and a large multicentre trial is lacking. Some studies on thrombophlebitis mention that no, or only a few, PVC-BSIs were identified, but such results must be interpreted with caution. Current data available on PVC-BSI suggest incidence density rates of 0.2-0.7 episodes per 1000 device days, which appear low when compared with other catheters. However, some studies report absolute PVC-BSI numbers in the range of central line-associated infections. It remains unclear whether PVC-BSI should be considered a serious healthcare problem or simply a very rare event. More research is needed both to capture the dimension of the problem and to provide efficient control measures.

Keywords

  • Catheters, Indwelling/ adverse effects
  • Humans
  • Risk Factors
  • Sepsis/etiology/prevention & control
  • Thrombophlebitis/etiology/prevention & control

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

ZINGG, Walter, PITTET, Didier. Peripheral venous catheters: an under-evaluated problem. In: International journal of antimicrobial agents, 2009, vol. 34, n° Suppl 4, p. S38–42. doi: 10.1016/S0924-8579(09)70565-5

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Article

Identifiers

Journal ISSN

0924-8579
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Technical informations

Creation

21/06/2010 10:27:18

First validation

21/06/2010 10:27:18

Update

14/03/2023 15:46:22

Status update

14/03/2023 15:46:22

Last indexation

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