Infection rates associated with epidural indwelling catheters for seven days or longer: systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 2 Main results for deep, superficial and any infection

	Site of infection
	Deep	Superficial	Any catheter-related
Number of studies	12	9	9
Number of patients with infections	57	194	257
Total number of patients	4628	4235	4235
Percentage of patients with infection	1.2	4.6	6.1
Risk of infection per 1000 catheter days	0.4	1.8	2.4
Mean days of catheter use before one infection occurs	2391	561	425

Note that the infection rate for deep plus superficial numbers and percentages does not necessarily equal that for any catheter-related infection because of different numerators and denominators

ISSN: 1472-684X