Sonication for Diagnosis of Catheter-Related Infection Is Not Better Than Traditional Roll-Plate Culture: A Prospective Cohort Study With 975 Central Venous Catheters

This prospective randomized controlled study with 975 nontunneled central venous catheters (CVCs) showed that the semiquantitative roll-plate culture technique (SQC) was as accurate as the sonication method for diagnosis of catheter-related infections. Sonication is difficult to standardize, whereas SQC is simpler, faster, and as reliable as the sonication method for culturing CVCs.