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Infection precautions with temporary pacing leads: a descriptive study
T A Beery1, L S Baas, C S Hickey
1Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA.
Objective:
To describe infection precautions used by nurses when caring for patients with temporary epicardial and transvenous pacemakers.
Design:
Descriptive, nation-wide survey.
Setting:
All U.S. hospitals performing cardiac surgery.
Respondents:
Nurse managers and clinical specialists from cardiac and thoracic intensive care, coronary care, and telemetry units at all U.S. hospitals performing cardiac surgery.
Intervention:
The Pacemaker Electrode Care and Safety Survey.
Results:
Responses came from 43% (388) of the 895 hospitals. Most respondents indicated that they wore gloves when handling electrodes (approximately 96%); usually the gloves were nonsterile (73%). A sterile procedure was often used to perform site care (37% for epicardial and 65% for transvenous). The most common agent used for site cleansing was povidone-iodine. Concern has been expressed in the literature about use of this agent. Gauze was the most common type of dressing (used by 60% for epicardial dressings and 31% for transvenous).
Conclusion:
There is diversity in clinical practice. Further study is recommended to establish the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of identified infection precautions.