Seventy two Hickman catheters have been studied in patients undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia from February 1987 to December 1989. Mean duration of catheterization was 139 days (range 5∼715 days) and catheter's infection rate was 0.22/100 cathete...
Seventy two Hickman catheters have been studied in patients undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia from February 1987 to December 1989. Mean duration of catheterization was 139 days (range 5∼715 days) and catheter's infection rate was 0.22/100 catheter days. Semiquantitative culture was done in 50 cases of removed catheters. Coagulase negative staphylococcus was the most prevalent organism(30.4%). Gram positive organisms including CNS were isolated in 11 cases(47.8%) and gram negative organaisms in 10 cases(43.3%).