Intensive Care Med (2004) 30:1891–1899 DOI 10.1007/s00134-004-2378-2 ORIGINAL Cristóbal León Sergio Ruiz-Santana Jordi Rello Maria V. de la Torre Jordi VallØs Francisco lvarez-Lerma Rafael Sierra Pedro Saavedra Francisco lvarez-Salgado for the Cabaæa Study Group Benefits of minocycline and rifampin-impregnated central venous catheters A prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled, multicenter trial Received: 2 October 2003 Accepted: 4 June 2004 Published online: 20 July 2004  Springer-Verlag 2004 This study was supported by a grant from Cook Europe. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http:// dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00134-004-2378-2 C. León ( ) ) Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitario de Valme, Universidad de Sevilla, Carretera de Cµdiz s/n, 41014 Sevilla, Spain e-mail: cleong@infonegocio.com Tel.: +34-95-5015593 Fax: +34-95-5015594 S. Ruiz-Santana · F. lvarez-Salgado Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitario Dr. Negrín, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain J. Rello Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitari Joan XXIII, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain M. V. de la Torre Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Ntra. Sra. de la Victoria, Mµlaga, Spain J. VallØs Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain F. lvarez-Lerma Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitari del Mar, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain R. Sierra Intensive Care Unit, Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, Universidad de Cµdiz, Cµdiz, Spain P. Saavedra Mathematics Department, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Abstract Objective: To determine the efficacy of minocycline and rifampin-impregnated catheters compared to non-impregnated catheters in critically ill patients. Design: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled, multicenter trial. Setting: Intensive care units of seven acute-care teaching hospitals in Spain. Patients: Intensive care unit patients requiring triple-lumen cen- tral venous catheter for more than 3 days. Interventions: At catheter insertion, 228 patients were random- ized to minocycline and rifampin- impregnated catheters and 237 to non-impregnated catheters. Skin, catheter tip, subcutaneous segment, hub cultures, peripheral blood and infusate cultures were performed at catheter withdrawal. The rate of col- onization, catheter-related blood- stream infection (CRBSI) and catheter-related clinical infectious complications (purulence at the in- sertion site or CRBSI) were assessed. Measurements and main results: In the intention-to-treat analysis (pri- mary analysis), the episodes per 1000 catheter days of clinical infectious complications decreased from 8.6 to 5.7 (RR =0.67, 95% CI 0.31–1.44), CRBSI from 5.9 to 3.1 (RR =0.53, 95% CI 0.2–1.44) and tip coloniza- tion from 24 to 10.4 (RR =0.43, 95% CI 0.26–0.73). Antimicrobial-im- pregnated catheters were associated with a significant decrease of coagu- lase-negative staphylococci coloni- zation (RR =0.24, 95% CI 0.13–0.45) and a significant increase of Candida spp. colonization (RR =5.84, 95% CI 1.31–26.1). Conclusions: The use of antimicrobial-impregnated catheters was associated with a significantly lower rate of coagulase-negative sta- phylococci colonization and a sig- nificant increase in Candida spp. colonization, although a decrease in CRBSI, increase in 30-day survival or reduced length of stay was not observed. Keywords Central venous catheters · Minocycline and rifampin- impregnated catheters · Non- impregnated catheters · Rate of colonization · Bloodstream infection · Clinical infectious complications