In recent years, the polyethylene intravenous catheters have been used with increasing frequency in the hospitalized patients requiring fluids and medications, monitoring of the central venous pressure, and receiving the hyperalimentation. In spite of their usefulness in the management of the critically ill patients, the complications related to the intravenous catheters such as thrombosis, phlebitis, and sepsis have been well known.
With the prospective study of 80 surgical patients. underwent 101 times of cut-down, . we analyzed the bacterial culture of the catheter tips and "tried to know the relationships between
.the positive rate of catheter tip culture and the- various clinical - situations in which the cut down were performed, the locations of the catheters, the duration of the catheterizations and the medications infused through the catheters.
The results are;
1. When the cut-down is performed at the peripheral veins, the non-infectious complications and the positive culture rate are higher than at the central veins.
2. When the cut-down is performed in the emergency cases, the positive culture rate is higher than in the elective cases.
3. It is not the antibiotics but transfusion that is related to the positive culture rate of the catheter tips.
4. When the catheters are maintained longer than 72 hours, the positive culture rate is sharply increased.
5. Among the organisms cultured, Herellea is the most common.
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