Ethanol treatment may be instrumental in fighting IV-based ...( infection caused by germs that may hav...)

This ethanol "lock" builds upon nearly a decade of Maki's own research and more recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that favor alcohol-based solutions over iodine-based disinfectants for killing germs. But before he could introduce the disinfecting system into regular clinical practice, his team needed proof that the ethanol wouldn't interact unfavorably with the catheter materials - either polyurethane or silicone - and damage them.

He turned to Crone, an expert in the mechanics of materials. Using a 70 percent ethanol solution, she and Halfmann conducted rigorous, "worst case scenario" tests. "We placed the catheters in a heated bath that mimicked the environment in the body and locked ethanol inside the catheter lumen for up to 72 days," she says.

Then they periodically removed the catheters from the bath, sectioned them and tested them to determine whether there was any change in the material's mechanical behavior. "We saw very little change in the mechanical behavior of the catheter material over the 72-day exposure time," says Crone.

This study is coupled with a large-scale ongoing comparative clinical trial Maki and Crnich are conducting at UW Hospital to rigorously test the ethanol lock's capacity to prevent IV catheter-related bloodstream infections. Together, the research projects ultimately will provide "essential results" that may enable medical personnel to use the ethanol lock technique widely and with confidence of safety, says Maki.

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Contact: Dennis Maki
dgmaki@medicine.wisc.edu
608-263-1545
University of Wisconsin-Madison
10-Aug-2005