Evaluation of an Internal Hospital Practice: The Effect of Altered Test Tubes Sampling Order on Blood Culture Contamination Rates

Hadassah Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Septicemia

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: aspirating first blood volume into a regular blood collection tube

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03088865

0017-17-HMO

Details and patient eligibility

About

Implementation of the initial specimen diversion technique, in which the first milliliter of the venipuncture sample is not injected into the culture bottle, led to a significant reduction in blood culture contamination rates. This technique is based on the assumption that the skin plug aspirated during venipuncture is a major source of contaminating bacteria. One such diversion method is aspirating the first blood volume into a blood collection tube. It has, however, been suggested that regular blood collection tubes carry contaminants from the tube's stopper into the blood cultures drawn afterwards, thereby increasing contamination rates. The aim of this trial is to examine the effect of aspirating the first blood volume into a regular blood collection tube on blood culture contamination rate.

Enrollment: 756 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adults evaluated in the emergency room or as inpatients for suspected sepsis or having sepsis and from whom the treating physician plans to take, in the same venous puncture, blood cultures and additional blood tests (blood count and/or blood chemistry).

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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756 participants in 2 patient groups

Initial Specimen Diversion

Experimental group

Description:

Aspirating first blood volume into a regular blood collection tube

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: aspirating first blood volume into a regular blood collection tube

Standard practice

Active Comparator group

Description:

Aspirating first blood into blood culture bottles (Standard practice)

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: aspirating first blood volume into a regular blood collection tube