Find in Library

Catheter-related sepsis is a serious complication secondary to the use of such devices for invasive monitorization and treatment with several implications on morbidity and mortality. The mortality average is 3 %. Internal and external colonization over catheter surfaces is the most important source of infectious process. The gold standard for diagnosis is still today controversial, semicuantitative culture using Maki's technique is the most frequent procedure, however, it isn't the most accurate on this regard with suboptimal sensibility and specificity values in meta-analysis studies. Evidence supports level I preventive maneuvers like: prophylactic heparin, avoiding routine change of catheters using guidewire, impregnated catheters with chlorhexidine-silver sulfadiazine.