To determine whether surveillance and infection control interventions decrease the incidence of catheter-related (CR) bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Korea.

A medical-surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital in Korea.

The CR infection rate of the intervention period was compared to that of historical controls for a 4-month period.

All patients with a central venous catheter in the intensive care unit (ICU) from October 1998 to January 1999.

Active infection control programs were initiated during the intervention period. Data collected included patient characteristics, risk factors of CR infection, and the microbiology laboratory results. Laboratory-proven CR infection rates were compared between the intervention group and control group.

304 catheters were inserted into 248 patients. The intervention group and the control group showed similar characteristics, but more patients in the intervention group received steroid therapy, and subclavian insertion was more common in the intervention group. CR BSI occurred in 1.3 per 1,000 catheter-days in the intervention group and 4.2 in the control group (binomial test, P=.14). CR infections were associated with the duration of ICU admission by multivariate logistic regression.

The data suggested that an active infection surveillance and control program could reduce the rate of CR BSI in an ICU.