BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Hemodialysis (HD) catheter-related complications are regarded as the main cause of HD failure in infants and children with ESRD. In this study, we determined HD catheter infection rates and survival times in children.

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS: We analyzed demographic, clinical, laboratory, and microbiologic data on all infants and children with ESRD who received HD therapy through a tunneled central venous catheter (CVC) in our Pediatric Dialysis Unit between January 2001 and December 2009. Our strict care of HD-CVCs makes no use of any kind of prophylactic antibiotic therapy.

RESULTS

Twenty-nine children with ESRD (median age, 10 years) received HD through a CVC, for a total of 22,892 days during the study period. Eleven (38%) children were infants (<1 year of age) who received HD for a cumulative 3779 days (16% of total). Fifty-nine CVCs were inserted, of which 13 (22%) were in infants. There were 12 episodes of CVC infection-a rate of 0.52/1000 CVC days. Four (33%) episodes occurred in infants-a rate of 1.06/1000 CVC days. Only three (5%) of the CVCs were removed because of infection. Median catheter survival time for all children was 310 days and for infants was 211 days.

CONCLUSIONS

Very low CVC infection rates (one infection per 5 CVC years) and prolonged CVC survival times (around 1 year) are achievable in infants and children with ESRD receiving HD therapy by adhering to a strict catheter management protocol and without using prophylactic antibiotic therapy.