TY - JOUR T1 - Central venous catheter infections in out-patients with pulmonary hypertension treated with continuous iloprost JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P4070 AU - Stephan Keusch AU - Rudolf Speich AU - Silvia Ulrich Somaini Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P4070.abstract N2 - Background: Intravenous prostanoid therapy is one cornerstone of therapy for patients with precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PH). Long-term central venous catheters expose patients to infectious complications. We report the incidence of catheter-related infection (CRI) and the spectrum of bacteria for ambulatory PH patients treated with Iloprost via non-tunnelled central venous catheters from our Swiss referral centre at Zurich.Methods: Data from 15 PH patients treated with intravenous iloprost between May 2000 and June 2012 were reviewed.Results: We found 11 CRI, in 4 cases by two different organisms. Pathogens found were Brevibacterium (55%), Micrococcus luteus (18%), coagulase-negative Staphy-lococcus (9%), Staphylococcus aureus (9%) and unusual organisms like Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Delftia tsuruhatensis. The overall CRI rate was 1.28 per 1000 catheter days or 0.47 per year.Conclusions: The incidence of CRI using long-term, non-tunneled central venous catheters in PH patients treated with iloprost is low. Uncommon, rare pathogens causing CRI were found in a substantial number of patients. ER -