Gram-negative intravascular catheter-related bacteremia in patients with spinal cord injury

To determine whether the prevalence of gram-negative catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) is higher in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) than in patients without SCI.

Retrospective chart review from August 1998 to August 2006.

A Veterans Affairs medical center, which serves as a tertiary care medical center to over 500 veterans with SCI and is the primary source of health care for veterans in southeast Texas.

All hospitalized patients who had an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, code for bacteremia associated with their hospital stay.

Not applicable.

The proportion of CRBSI caused by gram-negative organisms in the SCI patients to the proportion of CRBSI caused by gram-negative organisms in the non-SCI patients.

Eight (42%) of 19 episodes of CRBSI in the SCI were caused by a gram-negative organism as compared with 4 (11%) of 36 infections in the non-SCI group (P<.01). Factors associated with having a gram-negative organism rather than a gram-positive organism as the causative agent of CRBSI were SCI, femoral catheter site, prolonged hospitalization, decubitus ulcer, and urinary catheter.

In our medical center, patients with SCI who develop CRBSI are more likely to have an infection with a gram-negative organism than are patients without SCI. This knowledge may guide initial empirical therapy of suspected bloodstream infection.