Catheter-Related Infections Associated With Home Parenteral Nutrition and Predictive Factors for the Need for Catheter Removal in Their Treatment

ABSTRACT. The inpatient and outpatient records were reviewed for 527 patients, including 138 children, who were discharged on home total parenteral nutrition and followed by the University of California, Los Angeles, home total parenteral nutrition service for a niininiuni of 1 week between April 1973 and October 1991. The total follow-up time mas 1154 patient years; the median follow-up time was 206 days (range 7 to 6344 days). Thirty-six patients were followed for more than 10 years (median 12.7 years). Three hundred fifteen adults (but only four children) were never infected. A total of 427 catheter-related infections occurred, giving an overall infection rate of 0.37 per patient year (0.51 per patient year in children and 0.28 per patient year in patients followed for more than 10 years). Seventy percent of _the infections overall were sepsis (0.26 pe