[Fever in a patient with a central vein catheter].

A 75-year old male, operated on three weeks earlier due to descending colon cancer and reoperated 9 days later due to suture dehiscence, began with fever without clinical focality suggestive of surgical bed infection. The patient has a bilumen catheter in the right jugular vein, through which he receives different medications and parenteral nutrition. How can catheter-related infection be diagnosed? What should be done with the catheter? When and which antibiotics are appropriate to begin treatment? What risk factors for resistant bacteria should be considered? How should S. aureus bacteraemia be treated? Is it possible to reduce the rates of catheter-related infection? These and other questions are answered in this article and a working algorithm is presented.