ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Indwelling central venous catheters (CVCs) are essential devices in the management of patients with hematological disorders treated with chemotherapy. However, their nature predisposes patients to unwanted complications. METHODS: CVC-related complications were retrospectively analyzed in 227 hematologic patients who were consecutively admitted to our hematology department between May 2002 and April 2004. Patients' diagnoses comprised acute myeloid leukemia (36.8%), acute lymphoid leukemia (7.3%), lymphoproliferative disorders (28.3%), multiple myeloma (19.5%), myeloproliferative syndromes (5%) and others (3.1%). The CVCs used were polyurethane three lumen 7-Fr (111 patients) for chemotherapy and 12-Fr (114 patients) for chemotherapy and peripheral blood stem cell apheresis, plus two tunneled catheters. RESULTS: The pathological events were: bacteriaemias (n=46); occlusions (n=10); exit tunnel infections (n=8); thrombosis (n=6); lung emboli (n=2). Among febrile patients the bacteriemia frequency was 20%, of which 13.6% were CVC-related (with a higher incidence in leukemia patients (p=0.027). Among the isolates, gram-positive bacteria were found in 29 cases (23 CVC-related cases), and gram-negative bacteria in 16 cases (8 CVC-related cases). Only one patient had Candida albicans sepsis. At univariate and multivariate analysis significant risk factors for infection (p<0.0001) were only the number of days/catheters and neutropenia duration. CONCLUSIONS: In our hematologic patients, the CVC complications were mainly septic, with only 10.1% of CVC-related bacteriemias, despite prolonged catheterization duration. Acute leukemia patients were at major risk for sepsis, probably due to a more severe neutropenia and prolonged catheterization duration.
