A retrospective cohort study, available as a Research Square preprint, evaluated 723 hospitalized children younger than 18 years with central venous catheters admitted to a tertiary pediatric referral hospital in Tehran, Iran, between 2021 and 2024. Overall, 182 children (25.2%) developed at least one central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI), while 128 (17.7%) died during hospitalization. Among children with CLABSI, the in-hospital mortality rate was 22.0%.
Compared with the pediatric/general intensive care unit (PICU/general ICU), CLABSI risk was higher in the cardiac ICU/open-heart ICU (adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 1.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00–1.82) and lower in transplant/oncology wards (aRR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.37–0.88). Femoral catheter placement (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.04; 95% CI, 1.37–6.82) and each halving of platelet count (aOR, 1.51; 95% CI,…
