Evaluation of central venous catheter applications of pediatric cardiovascular surgical intensive care patients

This retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the development and cause of infection in central venous catheter (CVC) applications in pediatric cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit patients. The universe of the study consisted of 300 patients' records who were treated in a pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit between 1 January and 31 December 2017 in a private hospital. The sample included data on patients who applied a CVC from patients in the universe. (N=70) The data were collected through the following instruments; Patient Information Form and Central Venous Catheter and Nursing Care Information Form. The patient recorded obtained from archive of the hospital and scanned one by one and transferred to the data collection forms. The the mean age of the patients was 2.21±1.14 months. 37.1 % of the patients were in the 0-1 month rage, 41.4% were female and 58.6% were male. The majority of the patients in the study (57.1%) were operated because of cyanotic heart disease, the mean duration of treatment was 1.37±0.48 days in ICU and the mean dwell time of CVC was 1.54±0.50 days. In the majority of patients, it was determined that there was no sign of CVC (62.9%) and general infection (55.7%). The resulting infections; the majority were bacterial origin (38.6%). There was a significant relationship the duration of intensive care unit stay and the CVC dwell time between the presences of infection. As the duration of ICU and the duration of catheter stay increased, the rate of infection significantly increased (p≤0.001). In addition, there was a significant relationship the duration of ICU and the CVC dwell time between the presences of infection. Dwell time of CVC and the duration of ICU increased, the rate of infection at the site of CVC was significantly increased (p≤0.05). As a result, it was found that prolonged stay in ICU and dwell time of CVC increased catheter-related infection.