This systematic review and meta-analysis looked at nearly 19,000 arterial catheters used in adult intensive care units. The researchers combined data from multiple studies to understand how often these devices fail or cause infections.
The analysis found that arterial catheters failed in 13.0 percent of all cases. When looking specifically at failures not caused by infection, the rate was even higher at 19.8 percent. Infection-related issues were less common but still present. All-cause catheter-associated or related bloodstream infections occurred in 1.3 percent of cases, while local infections were seen in 1.2 percent of cases.
The researchers noted that definitions for infections were not always consistent across the studies. Because of this, they could not calculate the total number of catheter days to measure infection rates more precisely. The certainty of the findings was moderate for most outcomes and high for local infections. Reducing these failure rates and complications requires system-wide changes and clearer reporting standards.