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Hub Cleansing to Prevent Hub Infection (HUC-PHIN)

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Rush

Status

Completed

Conditions

Bacteremia

Treatments

Drug: 3.15% chlorhexidine/70% isopropyl alcohol
Drug: 70% isopropyl alcohol
Other: 15 second scrub
Other: 5 second scrub

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other
Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT01563406
U54CK000161-01W1

Details and patient eligibility

About

Central venous catheter infections are common preventable adverse events among hospital patients. Microbes may enter catheter hubs, also known as needleless connectors, and result in downstream contamination. This study aims to compare alcohol disinfection of catheter hubs to disinfection with chlorhexidine gluconate in alcohol, which has been proven to be a superior disinfectant at the site of central venous catheter insertion. Scrub duration of central venous catheter hubs will also be evaluated.

Full description

A prospective randomized blinded crossover clinical trial will be performed in the medical intensive care unit at Rush University Medical Center. The intensive care unit will be divided into two regions (A&B). Hub disinfectants and duration of disinfection will be randomly assigned to these regions. After 1/2 of the study period, the agents will crossover, but the duration of scrubbing will remain the same, analogous to a 2 by 2 factorial design. Our primary endpoint will be internal contamination of hubs and catheters.

In February 2012 it was determined that the supplier of chlorhexidine and alcohol pads could not completely blind each pad. It was decided that a plain white sticker would be affixed to the front of each pad, but the safety information on the back of each pad would remain visible.

3/27/12-Internal hub contamination (yes/no)was clarified as the primary outcome.

On 5/10/12 a new sample size calculation adjusted the hub sample size needed to power the main effects based on more accurate information regarding the expected hub contamination rate. The expected hub contamination rate changed because of the more sensitive hub culture method that was adopted before the study began. This more sensitive method also allowed for a new secondary outcome of number of microbial colony forming units per hub.

The first crossover time selected was 6/11/12, prior to the midpoint of the study. This was done to try to improve a large imbalance in the group sizes.

On 6/11/12 a hold was placed on the catheter tip component of the study, because of an inability to collect tips.

On 8/7/12 the catheter tip outcome was dropped because of an inability to collect tips.

On 1/11/13 a second crossover was implemented in an effort to balance the sizes of the study groups.

Enrollment

149 patients

Sex

All

Ages

16+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Medical intensive care unit patients with non-tunneled central venous catheters

Exclusion criteria

  • Dialysis catheters
  • Antibiotic-impregnated catheters
  • Introducer sheaths
  • Tunneled catheters

Trial design

Primary purpose

Prevention

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Factorial Assignment

Masking

Double Blind

149 participants in 4 patient groups

Alcohol with 5 second scrub
Experimental group
Description:
70% isopropyl alcohol will be used to scrub catheter hubs for a duration of 5 seconds.
Treatment:
Drug: 70% isopropyl alcohol
Other: 5 second scrub
Alcohol with 15 second scrub
Experimental group
Description:
70% isopropyl alcohol will be used to scrub catheter hubs for a duration of 15 seconds.
Treatment:
Other: 15 second scrub
Drug: 70% isopropyl alcohol
Chlorhexidine with 5 second scrub
Experimental group
Description:
3.15% chlorhexidine/70% isopropyl alcohol will be used to scrub catheter hubs for a duration of 5 seconds.
Treatment:
Other: 5 second scrub
Drug: 3.15% chlorhexidine/70% isopropyl alcohol
Chlorhexidine with 15 second scrub
Experimental group
Description:
3.15% chlorhexidine/70% isopropyl alcohol will be used to scrub catheter hubs for a duration of 15 seconds.
Treatment:
Other: 15 second scrub
Drug: 3.15% chlorhexidine/70% isopropyl alcohol

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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