An evidence-based approach to central venous catheter management to prevent catheter-related infection in critically ill patients

Abstract

A systematic search of the literature yielded 102 randomized controlled trials of interventions aimed at reducing central venous catheter-related infections in critically ill patients. The process of critically appraising these trials has begun and clinicians have performed meta-analyses of the data in some areas. There are three main components to the production of evidence-based guidelines in this area: identification of effective interventions, comparison of the relative merit of effective interventions aimed at the source of infection, and assessment of the applicability of the evidence to diverse sub-populations of critically ill patients.