Predictive factors of infection in patients with chronic kidney disease using hemodialysis catheters

Infection is the most frequent complication of central venous catheters used for hemodialysis.

The purpose of this study was to the determine the central venous catheter-related infection rate at a dialysis center in the Brazilian state of Amazonas and to identify risk factors and the microbiological profile of the infections.

This was an observational study with prospective data collection over a 12-month period by chart analysis and face-to-face interviews with patients undergoing hemodialysis using central venous catheters at a dialysis center.

96 central venous catheters were analyzed in 48 patients. 78 of these were non-tunneled central venous catheters (81.3%) and 18 were tunneled central venous catheters (18.7%), 53.1% of the catheters were exchanged because of infection and blood cultures were obtained from 35.2% of the patients who had catheter-related infections. Gram-negative bacteria were isolated from five of the nine blood cultures in which there was bacterial growth and Gram-positive bacteria were isolated from the other four. The most commonly isolated bacteria was Staphylococcus hominis, found in 22.2% of positive blood cultures.

The overall hemodialysis venous catheter infection rate was 10.1 episodes/1000 catheter days, 15.1 episodes/1000 catheters days in non-tunneled catheters and 3.3 episodes/1000 catheters days in tunneled catheters. The infection predisposing factors identified were use of non-tunneled catheters and having 2 hemodialysis sessions per week. Regarding the microbiological profile, over half of the bacteria isolated were Gram-negative.