The Association Between Catheter Type and Dialysis Treatment: A Retrospective Data Analysis at Two U.S.-Based ICUs.

Unlabelled: Dialysis catheter type may be associated with differences in continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) treatment in the critically ill, with potential implications for patient outcomes and healthcare costs.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between the catheter type and multiple dialysis treatment outcomes among the critically ill.

Design: Retrospective, observational study.

Setting: Two U.S.-based ICUs.

Participants: Critically ill patients receiving CRRT between April 1, 2018, and July 1, 2020. A total of 1,037 CRRT sessions were analyzed.

Main Outcomes And Measures: Circuit life, alarm interruption frequency (including a subset of vascular access [VA]-related alarms), termination type (elective vs nonelective), and blood flow rates. Pre- ( = 530) and post-catheter change ( = 507) periods were assessed, and the post-change period was further divided into intervals of pre-COVID ( = 167) and COVID contemporaneous ( = 340) to account for the pandemic's impact.

Results: Compared with pre-change sessions, post-change sessions had 31% longer circuit life (95% CI, 1.14-1.49; < 0.001), 3% higher blood flow rate (1.01-1.05; < 0.01), and lower proportion of nonelective terminations (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.42 [0.28-0.62]; < 0.001). There were fewer interruptions for all alarms (adjusted count ratio, 0.95 [0.87-1.05]; = 0.31) and VA-related alarms (0.80 [0.66-0.96]; = 0.014). The sessions during COVID period were statistically similar to pre-COVID sessions for all outcomes except a lower proportion of nonelective terminations (adjusted OR, 0.39 [0.22-0.70]; < 0.01).

Conclusions: A change in catheter type was associated with longer CRRT sessions with fewer interruptions and unexpected terminations in a population of critical patients.