Role of short-dwell daily ethanol-lock therapy in the management of hemodialysis tunneled cuffed catheter-related bloodstream infection

• Published in: The journal of vascular access 2024-07, Vol.25 (4), p.1100-1107
• Main Authors: Gang, Sishir, Konnur, Abhijit, Rajapurkar, Mohan, Hegde, Umapati, Patel, Hardik, Patel, Jigar, Shete, Nitiraj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1129-7298; 1724-6032; 1724-6032
• DOI: 10.1177/11297298221149477

Background: Catheter-Related Blood Stream Infection (CRBSI) is the major limitation of using Tunneled cuffed catheter (TCC) for long-term Hemodialysis. The standard therapy of CRBSI involves systemic antibiotics with catheter replacement/removal. As antibiotic alone is rarely effective therapy for CRBSI, biofilm eradication using antimicrobial locking solutions is a promising modality for CRBSI treatment, hence catheter salvage. The present study evaluated the efficacy and safety of Ethanol-lock therapy (ELT) in combination with systemic antibiotics for the management of CRBSI associated with hemodialysis TCC. Method: 56 patients with CRBSI were treated with 70% ELT (1 h daily for 5 days) along with systemic antibiotics. Seventeen patients with CRBSI who didn’t consent to ELT were treated with antibiotics alone. The effect of ELT was evaluated as clinical cure (fever resolution and negative surveillance cultures), infection-free TCC survival duration and adverse events of ELT among patients with CRBSI. The parameters were compared with 17 patients treated with antibiotics alone. Results: ELT was successful in 50 out of 56 patients (89.28%); compared to 41.17% (seven out of 17) with antibiotics alone (p