BACKGROUND Long-term tunnelled central venous catheters (TCVCs) are increasingly used when treating oncology patients. Despite international guidelines on sterile insertion, appropriate catheter maintenance and use, infections still a complication of TCVC. These infections are mainly caused by Gram-positive bacteria. Antimicrobial prevention strategies aimed at these micro-organisms could poten...

Intravascular catheter-associated bloodstream infections significantly increase rates of morbidity and hospital costs. Microbial colonization and development of biofilms, which are known to be recalcitrant to antibiotic therapy, often lead to the loss of otherwise patent vascular access systems. We evaluated a new taurolidine- and citrate-based catheter lock solution (Neutrolin; Biolink Corpora...

Heparin is an injectable anticoagulant that prevents coagulation. There are presently high and low molecular heparins as well as synthetic pentasaccharide inhibitors. Given its ubiquitous use in sensitive medical states, there is a high concern for safety with this drug. Heparin can induce several distinct immune-mediated reactions. There are several options to consider when heparin allergy occ...

objective: heparin and enoxaparin possess anti-inflammatory properties. we compared the effects of these drugs on inflammatory biomarkers in patients with st-segment elevated myocardial infarction (stemi). method: thirty four patients with stemi randomly separated in two groups and received standard doses of heparin and enoxaparin. the serum concentration of serum amyloid a (saa), c-reactive pr...

background: dendritic cells (dc) induce tumor or pathogen-specific t cell responses in humans. several laboratories have developed culture systems, including maturation factors for human dc from peripheral blood monocytes. we comprehensively compared standard maturation stimulus, an autologous monocyte-conditioned medium (mcm), with heparin for their ability to promote uniformly mature dc that ...

Acute venous congestion leads to blood stasis in the tissue and impaired blood perfusion. Using medicinal leech is an old method for reducing tissue congestion. There are numerous factors in leech saliva and hirudin that have important roles in the leeching beneficial effect. In this study, an animal study was performed to compare leech therapy with heparin therapy in the treatment of acute ven...

BACKGROUND Antimicrobial lock therapy (ALT) may be considered as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSI) when catheter removal is not a favorable option. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the outcomes associated with ALT as adjunctive treatment of CRBSI. METHODS This was a 24-month retrospective case series analysis evaluating patients treated for more tha...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of antibiotic lock solutions for preventing catheter-related bacteraemia in patients receiving haemodialysis. DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS Consecutive patients from March 2006 to April 2007 who had central venous catheter insertion for haemodialysis in our centre were included in this historically...

BACKGROUND Catheter-related bacteraemia (CRB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in haemodialysis patients. Interdialytic locking of catheters with antimicrobial agents has recently been investigated for the prevention of CRB. We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCT) to determine the efficacy of antimicrobial lock solutions (ALS) in the prevention of CRB in ha...