In a prospective study, cultures were obtained of all intravascular catheters removed from children in an intensive care unit. Of 366 catheters removed from 217 children, 110 (30%) were found to be colonized, most commonly with coagulase-negative staphylococci. Despite the high rate of colonization, there were only nine instances (2%) of catheter-related bacteremia.
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Schlager et al. (1997) studied this question.
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