[The skin flora: a source of the contamination of central venous catheters?]

The authors studied the incidence of catheter related infection in 24 central venous catheter at the Departamento de Cirurgia da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo. Skin and blood cultures were done in the first and fifth days and when the catheter were discharged. There were correlation between skin and catheter cultures in 33%. The results suggest that the skin flora is an important source of catheter related infection.