The incidence of infectious complications of central venous catheters at the subclavian, internal jugular, and femoral sites in an intensive care unit population.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to assess the risk of central venous catheter infection with respect to the site of insertion in an intensive care unit population. The subclavian, internal jugular, and femoral sites were studied.
DESIGN: An epidemiologic, prospective, observational study.
SETTING: The setting is a well-functioning intensive care unit under a unified critical care medicine division in a university teaching hospital. Critical care medicine attendings and fellows covered on site 17 and 24 hrs per day, respectively. PATIENTS: Patients were critically ill. All patients were triaged into the intensive care unit by on-site critical care medicine fellows.
INTERVENTIONS: None.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In an intensive care unit population, we prospectively studied the incidence of central venous catheter infection and colonization at the subclavian, internal jugular, and femoral sites. The optimal insertion site for each individual patient was selected by experienced intensive care physicians (critical care medicine attendings and fellows). All of the operators were proficient in inserting catheters at all three sites. Confounding factors were eliminated; there were a limited number of experienced operators inserting the catheters, a uniform protocol stressing strict sterile insertion was enforced, and standardized continuous catheter care was provided by dedicated intensive care nurses proficient in all aspects of central venous catheter care. Two groups of patients were analyzed. Group 1 was patients with one catheter at one site, and group 2 was patients with catheters at multiple sites. Group 1 was the primary analysis, whereas group 2 was supporting.A total of 831 central venous catheters and 4,735 catheter days in 657 patients were studied. The incidence of catheter infection (4.01/1,000 catheter days, 2.29% catheters) and colonization (5.07/1,000 catheter days, 2.89% catheters) was low overall. In group 1, the incidence of infection was subclavian: 0.881 infections/1,000 catheter days (0.45%), internal jugular: 0/1,000 (0%), and femoral: 2.98/1,000 (1.44%; p = .2635). The incidence of colonization was subclavian: 0.881 colonization/1,000 catheter days (0.45%), internal jugular: 2.00/1,000 (1.05%), and femoral: 5.96/1,000 (2.88%, p = .1338). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of infection and colonization or duration of catheters (p = .8907) among the insertion sites. In group 2, there was also no statistically significant difference in the incidence of infection and colonization among the three insertion sites.
CONCLUSION: In an intensive care unit population, the incidence of central venous catheter infection and colonization is low overall and, clinically and statistically, is not different at all three sites when optimal insertion sites are selected, experienced operators insert the catheters, strict sterile technique is present, and trained intensive care unit nursing staff perform catheter care.