A Retrospective Cohort Design And Measuring...

The initial primary article selected was written by Chopra, Ratz, Kuhn, Lopus, Chenoweth, and Krein. This study discusses recognizing patterns of PICC-associated bloodstream infection by studying and measuring characteristics of patients with PICCs as well as the details of the specific PICC used in order to identify common factors of infection. The researchers viewed the topic of interest as clinically significant due to the growing implementation of PICCs and to provide information for safer decisions among PICC use and care of patients (Chopra et al., 2014). To recognize these patterns of infection, the researchers opted to follow a retrospective cohort design; looking back to adult patients who received PICCs between June 2009†¦show more content†¦All participants were studied until the PICC(s) were excised or an infection developed. Patient characteristics measured included: demographics, hospital unit, comorbidities, and markers of illness (Chopra et al., 2014). Device factors considered included: duration of use, indication for placement, complications such as dislodgement or number of insertion attempts, arm of choice used, vein of choice, unit where PICC was placed, implanting operator such as radiologist or vascular access nurse, number of lumens, and gauge of PICC. The association between the descriptive characteristics chosen, both PICC and patient, and the development of bloodstream infection was determined using bivariate logistic regression for unadjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (Chopra et al., 2014). The study determined the most common factors among those sampled to be: an overwhelming majority of male patients (98%), most seeking long-term use for antibiotic treatment (52%) or for venous access (21%), 85% were placed by vascular access nurses within the basilic vein of the right arm (Chopra et al., 2014). Single-lumen PICC devices (48%) were the most commonly used, many placed within medical or surgical units (18%) an d remained for a median length of time of 21 days (Chopra et al., 2014). Over a total of 1156 catheter days, 966 PICCs were analyzed, 58 PICCs (6%) acquired CLABSIs. The most common infectious organism was determined to