Text Box: THE MONITORING AND PREVENTION OF CENTRAL VENOUS CATHETER-RELATED INFECTIONS IN PAEDIATRIC HOSPITAL Grażyna Piegdoń, Alicja Pawińska, Danuta Dzierżanowska The Children’s Memorial Health Insitute, Warsaw, Poland Objective: of the study was to estimate the frequency of central venous catheter (CVC) related infections in children hospitalised in the Children’s Memorial Health Institute between 1997 and 2000, after changing an organisation of patient care with CVC and epidemiological surveillance of hospital environment and staff modified. Materials and Methods: The frequency of CVC-related infections was estimated as the ratio of removed catheters in case of infection to all inserted catheters in one year. All removed catheters were bacteriologically tested. Catheter samples were cultured semi-quantitatively (Maki, 1977) and quantitatively. The isolated strains were identified and susceptibility to antibiotics was checked. Results: 2046 CVCs were evaluated: 332 in 1997, 457 in 1998, 544 in 1999 and 713 in 2000. The frequency of CVC-related infection was: 18% in 1997, 20% in 1998, 16% in 1999 and 11% in 2000. The most frequently isolated strains were staphylococci: 45% in 1997, 58% in 1998, 55% in 1999 and 43% in 2000. We observed increased number of infections caused by enterococci from 5% in 1997 to 12% in 2000. Conclusions: Epidemiological surveillance of patients undergoing intravenous therapy and improving in the patient care is correlated with a decreased number of cvc-related infections. 1443