Results of antibiotic treatment of Hickman-catheter-related infections in oncological patients

✍ Scribed by Claus Simon; Meinolf Suttorp

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 377 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0941-4355
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00355242

✦ Synopsis

A group of 330 oncological patients were supported throughout a 7-year period with central venous catheters (Broviac/ Hickman catheters) and underwent standard oncological chemotherapy, because of hematological malignancies or solid tumors (156 children), or a myeloablative conditioning regimen followed by bone marrow transplantation because of leukemia or lymphoma (174 patients: 110 adults, 64 children). Of these, 17 patients (8 after bone marrow transplantation) developed a catheter-related bacteremia and were treated by at least two antibiotics according to the sensitivity of the bacteria. In 1 patient the catheter (infected by Bacillus cereus) was removed on day 25 of antibiot-ic treatment because of persistent high fever and further positive blood cultures. After bone marrow transplantation, 2 other patients, with a Pseudomonas or a Staphylococcus infection respectively, did not respond to the combined antibiotic treatment and died 1 week and 7 weeks later, respectively, from transplant-related severe graft-versus-host disease. In the other 14 patients antibiotic treatment was successful and removal of the central-vein catheter could be avoided.