Incidence, complications, and costs of peripheral venous catheter-related bacteraemia: a retrospective, single-centre study.

Background: Peripheral venous catheter (PVC) complications occur on average in approximately half of patients, necessitating premature PVC removal, suspending administration of ongoing therapies, and catheter replacement.

Aim: To estimate the current incidence, complications, and costs of bloodstream infection (BSI) attributable to PVCs.

Methods: Patients with PVC-related BSI (cases) were matched with patients without PVC-related BSI (controls).

Findings: From January 1, 2018 to March 31, 2020, a total of 9833 out of 113,068 patients visiting the emergency department (9%) were hospitalized in a medical ward after insertion of a PVC. Among them, 581 (6%) had at least one positive blood culture. Twenty-five (4%) of these were judged as having a PVC-related BSI. Major complications were noted in nine patients. One patient presented severe sepsis requiring admission to intensive care unit for eleven days followed by thoracic (T4-T7) spondylodiscitis requiring prolonged antimicrobial therapy. Another patient developed mitral valve endocarditis also requiring prolonged antimicrobial therapy. One patient developed a pre-sacral abscess three months after initial PVC infection and required hospital readmission for 19 days for drainage. Median (interquartile range) hospital stay costs were €11,597 (8,479-23,759) for cases and €6,789 (4,019-10,764) for controls, leading to median additional costs of €5,587.

Conclusion: Though the risk of developing PVC-related BSI in patients admitted to medical wards may seem low, complications of PVC-related BSI are severe, and associated mortality remains high. The financial resources used to treat these complications could be better spent on prevention, including the use of high-quality materials and technologies, and improved training of healthcare providers.