Pseudomonas Septicemia Due to Deficient Disinfectant Mixing during Reuse

Abstract

We describe a cluster of four septicemias with pseudomonas, that occurred in a unit performing formaldehyde reuse of capillary dialyzers. Samples of blood, heparin solutions, dialysate and effluent of reused dialyzers, were evaluated bacteriologically and upon the adequacy of the reuse procedure. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, vesicularis and/or xanthomonas maltophilia were found on the blood cultures obtained during the septicemic reactions, and in the effluent of two reprocessed dialyzers not yet used (> 10⁴ CFU/ml). These two dialyzers had also extremely low formaldehyde concentrations (0.0014 and 0.005% versus the expected 4%). Membrane and antibiogram characteristics of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain, recovered from the blood cultures in one patient, and of a strain found in the effluent of one of the two contaminated reprocessed dialyzers, were the same. The problem was attributed to the inadequate mixing of the disinfectant with the tap water used in the automated reprocessing device, in the absence of an alarm disclosing this failure.