You are planning to place a radial arterial catheter for invasive blood pressure monitoring of a critically ill patient in the intensive care unit (ICU). You anticipate that invasive blood pressure monitoring will be needed for more than five days. According to a recent meta-analysis, which of the following actions is most likely associated with a significantly decreased risk of catheter-related infection?
Despite the fact that millions of arterial catheters are inserted each year in the United States, their placement remains an underappreciated source of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) in the ICU. The Joint Commission recommends regular culture surveys of central venous catheters but not arterial lines. Currently, the known risk of arterial-related CRBSI is 0 to 4 percent. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis yielded 49 studies documenting 202 arterial-line, ICU-based CRBSIs from more than 30,000 arterial catheter placements. This translates into an overall rate of 3.4 infections per...
