Taurolidine locks significantly reduce the incidence of catheter-related blood stream infections in high-risk patients on home parenteral nutrition

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests taurolidine reduces the risk of repeated episodes of catheter related blood stream infections (CRBSI) in a subgroup of patients receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN). We defined 3 indications where taurolidine could be considered and retrospectively analysed data from patients who were treated over a 10 year period to examine the validity of these criteria. Twenty-two patients were identified from a total HPN population of 81, representing 33.2 years of experience. The overall CRBSI rate pre- and post-taurolidine usage was reduced from 5.71 to 0.99 infections per 1000 patient parenteral nutrition days (P-value <0.0001), with reductions identified in each smaller subgroup, confirming previous reports of a significant reduction in infections when taurolidine is used as secondary prophylaxis and providing initial data suggesting the benefit of its use as primary prophylaxis.