Infectious complications of simultaneously inserted central venous and pulmonary artery catheters.

Infectious complications associated with simultaneously inserted pulmonary artery and central venous catheters via the same internal jugular vein were studied prospectively in 622 patients undergoing open-heart surgery under cephalothin prophylaxis. Successful insertion of the catheters was achieved in 650 (98.3%) of 661 attempts, while puncture complications occurred in 51 (8.2%) patients. One (0.2%) patient developed a local infection and 24 (3.9%) patients had one or more positive catheter-tip cultures without complications related to the positive cultures. Patients with puncture complications had no significantly different incidence of positive tip cultures. The incidence of positive catheter-tip cultures for pulmonary artery and central venous catheters was 2.6% and 1.7% respectively. Monitoring with a pulmonary artery and central venous catheter inserted via the same internal jugular vein is associated with a low rate of infectious complications.