A prospective clinical study of venous arterial blood manipulation system on prevention with arterial line contamination in critically ill patients. - Venous arterial blood manipulation system and atrial line contamination.

We analyzed microbial contamination for a total of 216 arterial catheters: 109 in the test group and 107 in the comparator group. We found no difference in the incidence of catheter-tip colonization in the two groups (test group 8/109 vs. comparator group 11/107, P = 0.48). There was a statistically significant correlation between catheter-tip colonization and duration of arterial line utilization. We found statistically significantly lower intraluminal fluid contamination in the test group (test group 2/109 vs. comparator group 9/107, P = 0.03). There was no relationship between intraluminal fluid contamination and catheter-tip contamination.