Abstract
Background
Central venous catheters (CVCs) are important for healthcare delivery in pediatric oncology patients. It is common to repair CVC breakage to prevent replacement. Existing evidence regarding the association between CVC repair and bloodstream infections (BSI) is limited in the general pediatric population and lacking in pediatric oncology patients. We aim at evaluating whether repairing broken CVCs is associated with an increased risk for subsequent BSI in a pediatric oncology center.
Methods
This is a retrospective case-crossover study of pediatric oncology patients with broken CVCs that underwent repair between July 2015 and June 2017. The incidence and characteristics of BSI in the 30-day pre-repair period were compared with those in the 30-day post-repair period. Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney and Fisher’s Exact tests were used for comparison of continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Univariate logistic regression was used to identify potential risk factors for BSI post CVC repair. Multiple breakages of the same CVC, and BSIs in overlapping observation periods of consecutive breakages are assumed independent.
Results
Sixty-four patients had 99 episodes of CVC breakage/repair in 68 CVCs. Median age (range) at repair was 2.5 (0.15–17.6) years. 48% of CVC breakages occurred in patients with solid tumors, 24% in HSCT recipients, and 19% in patients with leukemia. Only 25% of patients had neutropenia at repair and 14% had CVC occlusion 72 hours prior to breakage. All CVCs were made of silicone and 88% were double lumen external tunneled. First CVC breakage occurred at a median (range) of 130 (2–718) days since insertion, and CVCs were removed at a median (range) of 72.5 (3–753) days from the last repair. End of treatment was the most common cause (43%) for removal. The post-repair incidence of BSI was 4.5 per 1000 line-days compared with a pre-repair incidence of 4.3 (RR= 0.95, 95% CI 0.44, 2.18). There is no statistical difference between the characteristics of the pre-repair and post-repair BSI (Table 1). Figure 1 shows the organisms causing BSI before and after CVC repair. None of the evaluated variables was identified as a significant risk factor for BSI 30 days after CVC repair (Table 2).
Conclusion
Repair of CVC in pediatric oncology patients was not associated with increased risk of BSI.
Disclosures
All authors: No reported disclosures.
580. Association Between Central Venous Catheter Repair and Bloodstream Infections in a Pediatric Oncology Center