There is growing concern about the development of antibacterial resistance with the use of antibiotics in catheter lock solutions. The use of an antibiotic that is not usually used to treat other serious infections may be an alternative that may reduce the clinical impact should resistance develop. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare a solution of minocycline and EDTA with the conventional unfractionated heparin for the prevention of catheter-related bacteremia in hemodialysis patients during a period of 90 d. The study included 204 incident catheters (27.8% tunneled); 14 catheters were excluded because of early dysfunction and 3 because of protocol violations. We observed catheter-related bacteremia in 19 patients in the heparin group (4.3 per 1000 catheter-days) and in 5 patients in the minocycline-EDTA group (1.1 per 1000 catheter-days; P ϭ 0.005). We did not detect a significant difference in the rate of catheter removal for dysfunction. Catheter-related bacteremia-free survival was significantly higher in the minocycline-EDTA group than in the heparin group (P ϭ 0.005). In conclusion, a minocycline-EDTA catheter lock solution is effective in the prevention of catheter-related bacteremia in hemodialysis patients. 22: 193922: -194522: , 201122: . doi: 10.1681 Despite all efforts to reduce the use of catheters in hemodialysis units because of related complications, the frequency of catheter use continues to rise, probably in consequence of the tendency to place native arteriovenous fistula at all cost. 1,2 The main complications related to catheter use are dysfunction (inadequate blood flow) and infection. The type of infections comprise exit-site infection, tunnel infection, and bacteremia. Despite the fact that exit-site and tunnel infections are the most common complications, 3,4 catheter-related bacteremia (CRB) is the most serious one, representing a barrier to long-term catheter use and emerging as a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. 5 Some studies have demonstrated that in patients using a hemodialysis catheter, the risk of death is 1.5-to threefold higher when compared with patients with a primary arteriovenous fistula. [5][6][7] Moreover, in a large cohort, the occurrence of septicemia was associated subsequently with higher cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. 8 A recent clinical trial addressing the prevention of CRB demonstrated that 12% of bacteremia-episodes resulted in death. 9 For these reasons, the prevention of CRB has become one of the major challenges in the routine care of hemodialysis patients.
J Am Soc NephrolIn recent years several studies have employed specific locking solutions instead of the usual hep-