Intravascular catheter-related sepsis--novel methods of prevention

Intravascular catheter-related sepsis continues to cause a significant degree of morbidity and mortality, and accounts for the majority of staphylococcal bacteraemias and septicaemias in hospitalised patients. Methods designed to prevent these infections include those directed at aseptic techniques involving the patient and improvements in catheter design. More recently catheters which are either coated or have incorporated into their polymers antimicrobial agents have been developed. The antimicrobial agents have included both antimicrobials which are used to treat infections as well as antiseptics. The antimicrobial catheters currently available appear to only give protection for relatively short periods of time (approximately 14 days). The use of these antimicrobial catheters needs to be restricted to the situation where infection rates and the risk to the patient of sepsis are relatively high. Further novel approaches for the prevention of these infections include the combination of low voltage electric current together with antimicrobials; these await clinical evaluation.