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Scrubbing the hub of intravenous catheters with an alcohol wipe for 15 sec reduced neonatal sepsis
Author(s) -
Björkman Louise,
Ohlin Andreas
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/apa.12866
Subject(s) - medicine , sepsis , incidence (geometry) , neonatology , neonatal intensive care unit , neonatal sepsis , cons , population , pediatrics , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , surgery , pregnancy , environmental health , physics , biology , computer science , optics , genetics , programming language
Aim The aim of this study was to investigate whether scrubbing the hub of intravenous catheters with an alcohol wipe for 15 sec could reduce the incidence of neonatal sepsis in a level‐three neonatal intensive care unit. Methods We studied the incidence of neonatal sepsis caused by coagulase‐negative staphylococci ( C o NS ) for 16.5 months before the initiative was launched on May 15, 2012 and then for a further 8.5 months after it was introduced. The hub routine was applied to all intravenous catheters. Results During the control period before the initiative was launched, there were nine cases of C o NS sepsis compared with no cases after it was introduced, resulting in a decrease in sepsis incidence from 1.5% to 0% with a risk reduction of 1.5% (0.53–2.58%) (p = 0.06). In the preterm infant population, the incidence of sepsis decreased from 3.6% to 0% (1.1–6.0%) (p = 0.11). Conclusion Scrubbing the hub of intravenous catheters with an alcohol wipe for 15 sec seemed to be an efficient way of preventing sepsis caused by C o NS in newborn infants. However, the evidence for the benefits will remain weak until a large randomised trial has been completed.