Efficacy of taurolidine on the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections in patients on home parenteral nutrition.

PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy of taurolidine (TauroLockTM) line locks on the prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) in patients on home parenteral nutrition (HPN). METHODS: In our unit, any patient with ≥2 CRBSIs in six months is considered for TauroLockTM (2% taurolidine and 4% citrate) line locks. All such patients from May 2007 until January 2012 were identified, along with associated CRBSI rates. CRBSI was defined by differential time to positivity for positive blood cultures. CRBSIs were grouped into pre-taurolidine use and post-taurolidine commencement for each patient and the infection rate per 1000 catheter days calculated. Results were analyzed using Wilcoxon two-sided test. RESULTS: A total of nine patients were included (two men and seven women) with a median age of 51 (range 43-82) years. Infection rates after commencing taurolidine decreased markedly in all patients studied. The median CRBSI rate prior to taurolidine use was 6.39 per 1000 catheter days. This decreased to a median CRBSI rate of 0 per 1000 catheter days after commencing taurolidine. CONCLUSIONS: Taurolidine is no substitute for careful aseptic technique. However, it is clearly effective at preventing CRBSIs and should be used in patients with recurrent infections to reduce morbidity.

Nutritional management of Crohn's disease.

Nutritional care and therapy forms an integral part of the management of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Nutritional deficiencies result from reduced oral intake, malabsorption, medication side effects and systemic inflammation due to active disease. Enteral nutrition has a role in support for the malnourished patient, as well as in primary therapy to induce and maintain remission. The use of parenteral nutrition in CD is mainly limited to the preoperative setting or for patients with intestinal failure, but does not offer any additional advantage over EN in disease control. Dietary modifications, including elimination-reintroduction diets and a low fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP) diet may improve symptoms but there are currently no data to suggest that these approaches have any role in the induction or maintenance of remission.

Use of arteriovenous fistulae for home parenteral nutrition--a review of the literature.

PURPOSE: Delivery of home parenteral nutrition (HPN), traditionally via tunneled central venous catheters (CVCs) is associated with several complications, the commonest being catheter related bloodstream infections. We have reviewed the literature to investigate the use of arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) as a viable alternative to traditional routes for long-term parenteral nutrition (PN). METHODS: A literature search was performed using the Medline database, PubMed and a Google Scholar search. Search terms (keywords) used were: parenteral AND nutrition AND arteriovenous AND fistula for Title and Abstract. Our search yielded 12 articles (1972-2012). Two were excluded because of foreign language and difficult retrieval. The final yield was 10 papers RESULTS: There were four case reports, six original papers (one Swedish, one French--both excluded), one abstract and one letter to the editor. There were 19 native AVF, 11 bovine grafts (BG), four synthetic grafts (SG) and 10 autologous venous grafts (AVG). The maximum recorded length of use was 86, 54, 16.7 and 300 months, respectively. Complication rates per fistula calculated from literature were 0.47, 1.18, 2.0 and 0.3 respectively. Apart from these results, a recent retrospective study (13) of 62 AVFs for HPN patients revealed an infection rate far lower than all types of CVC and a slightly higher occlusion rate than long-term CVCs. CONCLUSIONS: There is relatively little data regarding this method. AVFs have been used successfully for HPN in patients with poor vasculature, on hemodialysis or recurrent line sepsis. This technique perhaps warrants more thorough exploration. Further research is required.