Occlusion and infection in Broviac catheters during intensive cancer therapy.
Before administration of intensive cytotoxic therapy, 90 central venous catheters were inserted into 80 patients with malignancies. Twenty-seven episodes of bacteremia and fungemia occurred during 96 treatment courses. The majority of these infections were due to gram-positive bacteria (45%) or fungi (22%), although gram-negative organisms accounted for 33%. Catheter occlusion occurred in patients receiving intravenous phenytoin, but blood products could be infused without difficulty. An increase in gram-positive bacteremias in patients with these catheters and drug-induced catheter occlusion must now be appreciated.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002404:Catheterization / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009181:Mycoses / Q000209:etiology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D018805:Sepsis / Q000209:etiology*; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology*