Survival times and complications of catheters used for outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy in children.

Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy is routinely used in pediatrics, but few data are available on catheter-associated complications and survival times. Catheter-associated complications, defined as mechanical or nonmechanical, and survival times in peripherally inserted central catheters and central venous catheters used for outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy in childhood were compared. The life test procedure was performed to determine survival time. Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the independent effect of variables such as age and gender on catheter survival. There were 104 peripheral and 130 central venous catheters, of which 28 peripheral and 19 central catheters had mechanical complications, and 13 peripheral and 17 central catheters had nonmechanical complications. Peripheral catheters are more likely to develop mechanical complications and have a shorter survival time than central venous catheters. For outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy longer than 6 weeks, central venous catheters appear to be a better choice.