A comparison of intravascular pressure monitoring system contamination and patient bacteremia with use of 48- and 72-hour system change intervals

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of culture positivity in intravascular monitoring systems by comparing 48 versus 72-hour intervals for flush solution, stopcocks and catheters on removal : Prospective, quasi-experimental, random assignment. G: Intensive care units of a midwestern university medical center and a community hospital. TS: Seventy-six critically ill adult patients, ranging in age from 24 to 96 years (X = 61.6), requiring arterial or pulmonary artery catheters. E MEASURE: Culture positivity of flush solution, stopcocks, or catheter tips. ENTION: Data collection was initiated at designated change intervals of 48-or 72-hours; cultures were taken of flush solution and stopcocks; catheter tip cultures were obtained on catheter removal. S: Chi-square analyses indicated that increasing the change interval to 72 hours resulted in no significant difference in culture positivity of catheter tips. However, the difference between the 48-and 72-hour groups in culture positivity rates of stopcocks from arterial catheters was significant (N = 82) = 6.86 p less than 0.01 SIONS: Our results showed that increasing the change interval to 72 hours did not increase the risk of catheter-associated infection or catheter-associated bacteremia Chi-square analysis did not show an association between culture-positive stopcocks the incidence of culture-positive catheter tips entries into the system or catheter-related bacteremia and a change interval that was increased to 72 hours. Thus, increasing the change interval to 72 hours does not increase the risk of infection.