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

The aim of the present study was to estimate the current incidence, complications and costs of BSI attributable to PVC. Patients with PVC-related BSI (cases) were matched with patients without PVC-related BSI (controls). From January 1st, 2018 to March 31th, 2020 9,833 out of 113,068 patients visiting the emergency department (9%) were hospitalised in a medical ward after insertion of a PVC. Among them, 581 (6%) had at least one positive blood culture (BC). 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 to 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 [IQR] 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. In conclusion, even 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 the 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 health care providers.