ethanol maintenance for Central Line Insertion

Vascular access via central venous lines (CVL) is essential to the care of many patients in the intensive care setting. While the value of these lines for the management of critically ill patients is generally accepted, the potential for line-associated blood stream infection is a known complication of the use of this intervention. Ethanol is an effective antimicrobial agent with activity against a broad spectrum of human pathogens. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of daily treatment of the catheter lumen with ethanol to prevent central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI). The hypothesis is that this treatment will reduce the incidence of CLABSI compared to maintenance of the lines with normal saline alone.