Length of Stay Predicts Risk of Early Infection for Hospitalized Patients Undergoing Central Venous Port Placement

Abstract Purpose To compare early totally implantable central venous port catheter–related infection rates after inpatient vs outpatient placement and to determine whether the risk associated with inpatient placement is influenced by length of hospital stay. Materials and Methods In this single-institution retrospective study, 5,301 patients (3,618 women; mean age 57 y) underwent port placement by interventional radiologists between October 2004 and January 2018. The 30-day infection rate was compared between inpatients and outpatients using survival analysis. Among inpatients, the effect of time from admission to port placement and from placement to discharge was analyzed using a survival regression tree. Results The 30-day infection rate was 3.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.9%–6.1%) among 386 inpatients and 1.0% (95% CI = 0.7%–1.3%) among 4,915 outpatients (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.6, 95% CI = 2.0–6.6, P 3 days, and 0% (95% CI = 0%–2.1%) among 192 inpatients in whom admission to placement was Conclusions Inpatient port placement was associated with a higher risk of early infection. However, a clinical decision tree based on shorter length of stay before and after placement may identify a subset of hospitalized patients not at increased risk for infection.