PURPOSE:The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a silver-alloy hydrogel catheter on symptomatic catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs).DESIGN:Multicenter before-after non-randomized cohort study.SUBJECTS AND SETTING:Seven acute care hospitals ranging in size from 124 to 607 beds participated in this study. The study population included adult patients with a positive urine culture 2 or more days after admission, who underwent Foley catheterization.METHODS:Catheter-associated urinary tract infection surveillance was conducted at each hospital for at least 3 months during the use of a standard catheter and 3 months during the use of the silver-alloy hydrogel catheter. Both the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) surveillance and a clinical definition of CAUTI were used for rate calculation.RESULTS:A 47% relative reduction in the CAUTI rate was observed with the silver-alloy hydrogel catheter compared to the standard catheter when both infection definitions were used (0.945/1000 patient days vs 0.498/1000 patient days) (odds ratio = 0.53; P < .0001; 95% CI: 0.45–0.62). When only NHSN-defined CAUTIs were considered, a 58% relative reduction occurred in the silver-alloy hydrogel period (0.60/1000 patient days vs 0.25/1000 patient days) (odds ratio = 0.42; P < .0001; 95% CI: 0.34–0.53). Antimicrobial days for CAUTIs decreased from 1165 (standard catheter period) to 406 (silver-alloy hydrogel period).CONCLUSIONS:Use of a silver-alloy hydrogel urinary catheter reduced symptomatic CAUTI occurrences as defined by both NHSN and clinical criteria.

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INRs of greater than 3.0 and vitamin K administration appeared to be reliable indicators of warfarin-associated ADEs, and detection with these indicators appeared to reduce ADEs when combined with appropriate interventions.

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