Infection and Tampering Prevention of Vascular Access Ports

Background

Central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) are deadly health care associated infections (HAI), with reported mortality of 12% to 25%. CLABSI primarily occurs during catheter insertion, access line attachment to the catheter, and/or maintenance of the access line.

Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) lines are routinely used to administer drugs to patients on a continuing basis. This catheter can remain in place for weeks or months, and facilitates rapid injection of necessary medication without repeated difficulty in finding a vein. Although very convenient, the lengthy use of the catheter increases the chance of developing CLABSI.

Further, this ease of intravenous access, can be a serious hazard for outpatients who are habitual drug abusers, who can take advantage of this catheter to self-administer un‑prescribed quantities of narcotics or other controlled substances. Providing a drug abuser with an unsupervised PICC line can lead to infections, illegal drug overdose and death.

Technology Overview

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a easy to use, tamper evident vascular access device configured to deter and prevent a patient from tampering with their vascular access. The devices works by covering a catheter line in such a way that it cannot be removed with distorting the device and giving evidence of the interference.

The device is easy to use and does not interrupt existing nurse work‑flows to apply or remove. The device works universally with all PICC lines.

Stage of Development

Prototypes of the device have been created and bench tested.

Benefits

• Prevents central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs), a savings of ~$70‑180K per patient to the hospital
• Reduces length of stay in the hospital by preventing infections and complications
• Deters patient self‑inflicted harm and/or misuse of vascular access
• Provides evidence of tampering which reduces liability for the hospital
• Cost‑effective and similar in shape to existing PICC lines
• Non‑obtrusive and less stigmatizing to the patient

Applications

For use by providers with a variety of patient populations who may purposefully or inadvertently tamper with their vascular access, including:

• Children
• Patients with neuro‑degenerative diseases
• Patients with psychiatric diseases
• Intravenous drug users (IVDUs)

Can also be configured for other vascular access lines including peripheral cannulas (PCs), midlines, acute non‑tunneled CVC (ANT‑CVC), tunneled lines, implanted venous access devices (IVADs), internal jugular central venous lines (IJs), etc.