[Complications of the deep venous approach in vascular surgery]

Cultures were made of the distal ends of 101 venous catheters removed from the same number of patients recently operated on for vascular disorders, and 7.9 per cent of the cultures were positive. The most frequently found germ was negative coagulase staphylococcus (4.9%). In these patients, 5.9 per cent of hemocultures were positive, the most frequent germ being positive coagulase staphylococcus (1.9%). There was no coincidence between the patients with positive hemocultures and those with positive cultures of the distal ends of the removed venous catheters. There were no infective or non-infective complications. Also, there no reports of early or late infection of the vascular prosthesis implanted on the patients operated on up to now.