Successful elimination of hemodialysis-related bacteremia and vascular access infection

Hemodialysis (HD) related bacteremia and dialysis induced infection constitute major risk factors for mortality and morbidity among patients with end stage renal disease. In this retrospective study, we attempted to assess the impact of the infection control protocol introduced in our center on the prevalence of HD related bacteremia and vascular access infection. All the HD sessions performed over 8 years, from January 2004 till the end of December 2011, were included in this study. Over 108 months of the study period, 6161 HD sessions were performed on 118 patients. Demographic data of all the study patients were collected. The type of vascular access as well as the presence of diabetes and hypertension were recorded. During the study period, 15 episodes of dialysis related bacteremia were noted in nine patients. Three of them required hospitalization for administration of parenteral antibiotics. Blood cultures in 93% of the infection episodes (14/15) grew Sphingomonas paucilomobilis. One patient had methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus grown on blood culture. The prevalence of HD related bacteremia and vascular access infection in our unit were lower than international published data. The infection control protocol used seems to have been successful in reducing HD related bacteremia and eliminating vascular access infection.