Instituting a New Central Line Policy to Decrease Central Line-associated Blood Stream Infection Rates During...

Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) require central lines to facilitate their care. Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) may have lower rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) versus other central lines.

The objective of this study was to compare the CLABSI rate in the first month of therapy after initiating a policy to place PICCs in new patients with severe neutropenia (SN) and Mediports in those with moderate-to-no neutropenia. We also examined thrombosis rates.

We prospectively gathered data on new patients for 2.5 years following the policy change and retrospectively for the 2 years prior and compared rates of CLABSIs and thrombosis.

CLABSIs decreased in SN patients from 7.52/1000 to 3.11/1000 line days (P=0.33). The CLABSI rate for all patients with SN who had a Mediport was 13.39/1000 versus 4.08/1000 line days for those that received PICCs (P=0.15). The thrombosis rate for Mediport patients was 3.13 clots/1000 versus 7.65/1000 line days for PICC patients, but the difference was not significant (P= 0.11).

The differences observed suggest that placing PICCs versus Mediports in new ALL patients with SN may result in a lower incidence of CLABSIs in the first month of therapy without a significant increase in thrombosis.