PEDIATRICS Vol. 49 No. 3 March 1972, pp. 470-471
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Contamination of Umbilical Vessel Catheters: Encouraging Information

William F. Powers M.D.1 and William H. Tooley M.D.1

1 Department of Pediatrics, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California-San Francisco, 2nd and Parnassus Streets, San Francisco, California 94122

In his recent editorial, Dr. Cook1 mentions bacterial contamination as one of the complications of umbilical artery catheterization, and refers to a report by Krauss, et al.2 who grew bacteria from 6 of 11 (55%) umbilical artery catheters. Balagtas, et al.3 have also published similar findings with umbilical vein catheters, 52% of which had bacterial colonization on removal. These reports stress the significant risk of generalized infection with umbilical vessel catheters.

On the other hand, Casalino and Lipsitz4 report a 5% incidence of bacterial contamination.