Central venous catheter exchange by guidewire for treatment of catheter-related bacteraemia in patients undergoing BMT or intensive chemotherapy

Current guidelines for the treatment of catheter-related bacteraemia (CRB) advise against central venous catheter (CVC) exchange because of the potent ial risk of prolonging infection, However, there are no consistent data pro ving this recommendation. We evaluated prospectively the usefulness of CVC exchange by guidewire for the treatment of CRB in patients undergoing BMT o r intensive chemotherapy, CVC exchange was considered when fever and positi ve blood cultures persisted after 2 days of adequate antimicrobial therapy and no potential source of bacteraemia other than CVC could be identified. The guidewire exchange was preceded and followed by a slow infusion of adeq uate antimicrobial therapy. Bacteraemia was confirmed as catheter-related b y demonstrating concordance between isolates from the tip and blood culture s by pulsed-field electrophoresis of genomic DNA, This procedure was perfor med in 19 episodes of bacteraemia during a 1-year period. Fourteen episodes (74%) were catheter-related and 71% of these were due to coagulase-negativ e staphylococci, Guidewire replacement was accomplished uneventfully 4 days after development of sepsis (range 3-6), In all cases, clinical signs of s epsis disappeared in less than 24 h after replacement. Definitive catheter withdrawal was carried out a median of 16 days (range 3-42) after guidewire exchange; in all cases, the tip culture was negative. We conclude that CVC replacement by guidewire under adequate antimicrobial therapy may be a rea sonable option for the treatment of CRB when antimicrobial therapy alone ha s been unsuccessful.