Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters May Lower The Incidene Of

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters May Lower The Incidene Of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters May Lower The Incidene Of Atheter Peripherally inserted central catheters may lower the incidence of catheter-Related Blood Stream Infections in Patients in Surgical Intensive Care UnitsName:Institution:Course:Tutor:Date:Keywords: Peripheral Inserted Central Catheters - PICCs, Central Venous Catheters – CVCs, Surgical Intensive Care Units - SICUs, Catheter-related Blood Stream Infections (CR-BSI), Major weakness during the studyIntroductionWeakness is a scientific research inadequacy known to hinder effective attainment of both accurate and reliable data. Two major ways of intravenous access include Central Venous Catheters (CVCs) and Peripheral Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs) (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011). Mainly, these apply to those patients who stay for longer periods in Surgical Intensive Care Units (SICUs) (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011). Throughout the entire study, the use of PICCs resulted in low rate infection of Catheter-related Blood Stream Infec tions (CR-BSI) among patients compared to the use of antiseptic CVCs (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011).The study comprises several weaknesses some of being lack of compatibility in the average time of stay in the SICUs for both the CVCs and the PICCs (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011). For instance, lines of infusion for fluids and medication stayed for a longer period in the CVCs than in the PICCs. Hence, turning to be detrimental to the patients because previous studies showed the rate of infection with the CVCs increased if the catheter was in place for a prolonged period. This could have led to the conclusion; the CVCs had a higher rate of infection. Chances of selection bias were also high due to failure of specific criteria for a CVC as well as PICC insertion (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011). This is because initially the study did not provide a specific and suitable criterion for catheter insertion. Therefore, the choice of insertion site depended on physician’s choice and limited to either internal jugular or the sub-clavian vein (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011). Thirdly, there was invalidity of data obtained for all patients in the intensive care unit. This is because the study featured a very small group of intensive care unit patients whereby its greater 63 % sample were patients with trauma, whereas neurosurgical patients, general surgical patients were 19% and 18% respectively (Gunst, Matsushima, Vanek, Gunst, Shafi, Frankel, 2011).ReferencesGunst, M., Matsushima, K., Vanek, S., Gunst, R., Shafi, S., Frankel, H. (2011). Peripherally inserted central catheters may lower the incidence of catheter-related blood stream infections in patients in surgical intensive care units. Surgical Infections, 12(4). 279-82. DOI: 10.1089/sur.2008.058.