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Published on: June 11, 2009
Treatment of Staphylococcus epidermidis central vascular catheter infection with 70% ethanol locks: efficacy in a
Stephen T Chambers1, Alan Pithie, Katrina Gallagher
1Department of Pathology, Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, PO Box 4345, Christchurch, New Zealand. steve.chambers@cdhb.govt.nz
Objectives:
To determine whether a single treatment with ethanol/water (70:30) will sterilize infected vascular catheters.
Methods:
A double-blinded, block-randomized trial was conducted in a sheep model comparing the efficacy of one 3 h treatment with ethanol/water (70:30) with heparinized saline for treatment of Hickman vascular catheters infected with Staphylococcus epidermidis. Catheters were cultured using endoluminal brushes, blood cultures, roll plates of catheter tip, broth flushed through the catheter and hub swabs.
Results:
There were significantly more sterile catheters in the ethanol treatment group than the saline treatment group (9/11 versus 0/11, P < 0.01, McNemar's chi(2) test). The median number of positive cultures in the ethanol treatment group was less than in the saline treatment group (0 versus 5, P = 0.009, Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
Conclusions:
A single treatment of 70% ethanol is effective and clinical trials are warranted for treatment of infected vascular catheters using this regimen.
