Background: One of the major complications of venous access ports placement especially in cancer patients scheduling for chemotherapy is infection. We aimed to investigate the frequency of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) originated from chemotherapy catheter in children undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: All cancer patients referred to the Hematology department at Ali Asghar Pediatric Hospital during 2006 to 2016 who underwent chemoport treatment were included into this retrospective cross-sectional study. CRBSI was considered is children with a portal chemotherapy with at least one positive blood culture obtained from a peripheral vein and catheter tip, clinical manifestations of infections, and no apparent source for the this infection, except the catheter.
Results: Overall, 36.42% of the subjects had chemotherapy port and 63.58% had no chemotherapy port. In total, 18.87% of all patients had blood infection and 81.13% had no infection. The rate of chemotherapy catheter insertion was strongly associated with higher rate of positive blood culture for infection (p < 0.001). In this regard, the rate of infection in the children with and without catheter was reported to be 64.9% and 29.8% respectively (p < 0.001). The most common bacterial strain discovered by blood culture in both groups with and without catheter was micrococcus subfamily. Regarding clinical outcome in those subgroups of children with and without chemotherapy port, the death rate was found to be 2.7% and 0.5% respectively with no difference (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: CRBSI is a common event in children suffering chemotherapy especially in higher ages.
Key words: Chemotherapy, CRBSI, Childhood cancer, Bacterial infections.
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