Central Venous Catheter Related Infection among Patients on Hemodialysis

End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients need vascular access for hemodialysis and infection is the most common late complication of central venous catheters.A descriptive prospective study was done on hemodialysis patients to evaluate the prevalence of the catheter-related infections. Patients with possible central venous catheter infection were enrolled from July 2009 to April 2011 at Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad. We checked the apparent exit site infection as well as the systemic signs and symptoms of catheter-related infection. Specimens were obtained from the catheter blood, the catheter tip and the peripheral blood for culture and antibiogram. Then data was collected by using SPSS. Frequency tables, graphs and mean were prepared for describing data.From total 65 hemodialysis patients (34 females, 31 males with a mean age of 54.9), 41 ones (63/1%) had a past history of catheter-related infection. As for the local signs of infection, 52 patients (80%) had tenderness, 41 (63.1%) had induration, 35 (53.8%) had redness and 32 ones (49.2%) had pus discharge from the catheter insertion site. Staphylococcus aureus was the prevalent organism among 76.7% of patients with positive culture out of which 79.6% were vancomycin sensitive. Catheter had to be removed in 21(33.3%) of the dialysis patients.Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism involving in catheter-related infection among hemodialysis patients and the most common clinical sign of infection, was tenderness at the catheter insertion site. We suggest that these findings could be used for early diagnosis and starting the empiric antibiotic regimen in patients with central venous catheters.