The aim of the study is to evaluate the presence of bacteria in material collected from catheter lumen in dialyzed sheep as a preliminary study. Five permanent catheters were inserted into the external jugular vein of five sheep. Every 10 days during two months the 1250 j.m./ml heparin from catheters was collected to examination. The 30 microbiological analyses were carried out to define the total number of bacteria, Echerichia coli and coliform bacteria. The microorganisms were isolated from 50% samples but only one of the 30 samples contained coliform bacteria. The dialysis catheters are a common cause of infections in hemodialysis patients. The results demonstrated the possibility of catheter-related bacteremia in animals with hemodialysis catheters.

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