title: Lack of effect of changing needles on contamination of blood cultures.
abstract: To determine whether changing needles during the collection of blood cultures reduces contamination, we randomly assigned 303 children undergoing blood cultures to 1 of 3 groups: no needle changes (blood instilled directly into culture media through the needle used for venipuncture); 1 needle change (before inoculation into the first of 2 culture bottles); and 2 needle changes (before inoculation into each of 2 culture bottles). Each patient's skin was cleansed with povidone-iodine for 60 seconds before venipuncture. We found similar rates of contamination among the 3 groups: no change, 2 of 92 (2.2%); 1 change, 0 of 106 (0.0%); 2 changes, 2 of 105 (1.9%). The combined contamination rate of all 3 groups (1.3%) was significantly lower than the prestudy rate of contamination (4.4%), based on 315 blood cultures (P = 0.04). These data suggest that careful skin preparation is a more important factor than changing needles in reducing contamination during blood culture collection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Isaacman
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Karasic
mesh_terms: D000985:Antisepsis / Q000379:methods; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards; D001815:Bloodletting / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009339:Needles; D010414:Pennsylvania; D011206:Povidone-Iodine / Q000494:pharmacology; D011897:Random Allocation; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D011206:Povidone-Iodine