Evaluation of a no-dressing intervention for tunneled central venous catheter exit sites

This study tested whether central venous catheter (CVC)-related sepsis could be reduced by removing a hypothesized reservoir for pathogens, the CVC exit site dressing. Seventy-eight individuals with cancer, stratified for gender (37 men and 41 women) and transplant status, with newly inserted CVCs were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either a gauze dressing or no dressing, once their catheter insertion site had healed (3 weeks). Because there was no difference in CVC-related septic episodes based on gender or transplant status, the stratification was not maintained for remaining analyses. Although there was no significant difference in CVC-related septic episodes (P =.28) or rehospitalization rates (P =.41) because of CVC-related sepsis between the dressing and no-dressing group, individuals in the dressing group developed CVC-related sepsis sooner (P =.02) than did individuals in the no-dressing group.