The addition of potassium permanganate solution to the dressing recommended by international guidelines at the insertion site of the central venous catheter may reduce the prevalence of bloodstream infections related to the use of these catheters in an Intensive Care Unit? A randomized controlled trial

Healthcare-related infections are very prevalent in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), 30% of them related to bloodstream infections; these are relevant because they increase morbidity, mortality and hospitalization costs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the addition of 1:10,000 potassium permanganate to the dressing at central venous catheter introduction (CVC) sites is able to reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients at Hospital Policlin 9 de July (HP9July). This was a randomized controlled clinical trial evaluating the HP9July hospital infection control database of 353 catheters/day they received in their dressings at CVC insertion sites, according as recommended by the 2011 CDC Guidelines. the addition of permanganate solution (KMnO4) at 1:10,000 (KMnO4 Group), and 353 catheters / day not receiving KMnO4 (Control Group). In the results, regarding the presence of infection in the bloodstream, we have found a ratio of 7:2, when compared the control group with the KMnO4 group, which had statistical significance. The KMnO4 and Control groups were evaluated and compared using the Mann-Whitney test and the Binomial Proportions test for 2 individual variables (gender and age) in addition to 8 clinical variables (orotracheal intubation, CVD, CVC, catheters-day, deaths, positive blood culture, APACHE II and SAPS III), with a statistically significant difference only between the values of positive blood cultures (p-value = 0.05). Therefore, based on the results obtained, we conclude that the addition of potassium permanganate 1: 10,000, to the dressing recommended by the 2011 Guidelines CDC, reduced bloodstream infections, related to central venous catheter, in patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of said hospital.