Risks from cannulae used to maintain intravenous access

Abstract

future which do not sequester bacteria in this way. We agree with Oberhammer5 that companies should discontinue manufacturing devices with injection ports which cannot be safely and repeatedly disinfected.

A trial of povidone‐iodine for prevention of contamination of intravenous cannulae

“…Oberhammer (1) and Peters et al (2,3) published reports in 1980/81 indicating that cannula sideports might be a potential risk of contamination in Venflon cannulae. Later reports by MacFarlane et al (4,5) and Cowan (6) did not support the first reports, and our own previous results (7-9) using a special culturing technique showed no correlation between use of the sideport and intraluminal contamination of the cannulae.…”

“…Most reports have dealt with the problem of whether the sideport is a major route of contamination (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6). In previous studies we found no correlation between use of sideport and intraluminal contamination of the cannulae (7-9), but in one study we found an intraluminal contamination rate of 16.5% after 4-8 h in use (7), which seems to indicate that the technique of insertion might play a major role in contamination of the intravenous cannulae.…”