Bacteremia after interventional cardiac catheters

ABSTRACT

The study showed no bacteremia in the precatheterization samples, wereas post-catheterization samples showed no difference in incidence of bacteremia in interventional compared with diagnostic cases [36.7% vs. 33.3% respectively. The most commonly isolated organisms were gram negative aerobic and facultative bacilli in interventional and diagnostic cases [72% and 100% respectively], especially Pseudomonas aeruginosa [54.5% vs. 40% respectively], followed by staphylococci. The results showed that bacteremia is common after both types of catheterization and neither correlated to factors related to the patients [age, sex, etiological diagnosis], nor to factors related to technique [type and duration of the procedure, and the number of catheters used]. However, the high rate of bacteremia calls for a serious revision of the procedures of resterilization of disposable equipment