Background
Changing a central venous catheter occlusive dressing on a twice-weekly basis is usually recommended in hemato-oncological patients. A longer interval is believed to give rise to infections. However, frequent dressing changes might cause local cutaneous damage.
Material and Method
Local cutaneous damage and infections were compared in patients with once-weekly versus twice-weekly changes of central venous catheters occlusive dressings. This was a prospective, randomized, multicenter trial.
Results
Eighty-one patients with acute myeloid leukemia being treated with intensive chemotherapy were enrolled (twice-weekly group: n=42, once-weekly group: n=39). They had a non-tunneled polyurethane central venous catheter inserted into the vena subclavia and the insertion site was covered by a polyurethane semi-permeable occlusive dressing. No differences were observed between the groups with respect to local cutaneous damage, fevers, or positive catheter blood cultures. There were more insertion-site inflammations in the twice-weekly group (55% vs. 25%, p=0.008). In the once-weekly group it was necessary to change the occlusive dressing sooner in 42% of the cases, mostly due to a soiled dressing and local bleeding, and the real mean interval of changes was 5.4 days.
Conclusions
Prolonging the frequency of occlusive dressing change to a once-weekly interval was limited by an increasing number of unplanned dressing changes. The prolonged interval of dressing changes, with a real mean interval of 5.4 days, did not lead to an increased number of local cutaneous complications or central venous catheter blood culture positivity and even contributed to reduced insertion-site inflammation occurrence.

Keywords: Pain - complications, Skin - pathology, Occlusive Dressings - adverse effects, Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute - drug therapy, Inflammation - complications, Fever - complications, Catheterization, Central Venous - adverse effects, Catheter-Related Infections - microbiology, Time Factors