Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Reduction of central-line infections

The Medscape title is deceptive: ICUs Cut Central-Line Bloodstream Infections to Zero.

The research letter published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine, referenced in the Medscape report, claimed nothing of the kind. That's not to diminish the importance of the study. What it did show some ICUs have been able to go from 1 to 2 years without any infections, attributable to the use of a bundle of evidence based interventions.

Clearly central-line infections can be reduced and as use of the interventions becomes more widely adopted will asymptotically approach zero.

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