Comparison of a Silver-Coated Needleless Connector and a Standard Needleless Connector for the Prevention of Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections

OBJECTIVE. To assess the impact of a novel, silver-coated needleless connectors (NCs) on central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates compared with a mechanically identical NCs without a silver coating. DESIGN. Prospective longitudinal observation study SETTING. Two 500-bed university hospitals PATIENTS. All hospitalized adults from November 2009 to June 2011 with non-hemodialysis central lines INTERVENTIONS. Hospital A started with silver-coated NCs and switched to standard NCs in September 2010; hospital B started with standard NCs and switched to silver-coated NCs. The primary outcome was the difference revealed by Poisson multivariate regression in CLABSI rate using standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance definitions. The secondary outcome was a comparison of organism-specific CLABSI rates by NC type. RESULTS. Among 15,845 hospital admissions, 140,186 central-line days and 221 CLABSIs were recorded during the study period. In a multivariate model, the CLABSI rate per 1,000 central-line days was lower with silver-coated NCs than with standard NCs (1.21 vs 1.79; incidence rate ratio = 0.68 [95% CI: 0.52-0.89], P=.005). A lower CLABSI rate per 1,000 central-line days for the silver-coated NCs versus the standard NCs was observed with S. aureus (0.11 vs 0.30, P=.02), enterococci (0.10 vs 0.27, P=.03), and Gram-negative organisms (0.28 vs 0.63, P=.003) but not with coagulase-negative staphylococci (0.31 vs 0.36) or Candida spp. (0.42 vs 0.40). CONCLUSIONS. The use of silver-coated NCs decreased the CLABSI rate by 32%. CLABSI reduction efforts should include efforts to minimize contamination of NCs.