One in 33 central-line placements results in major complications?

We doubt it.

A new paper in JAMA Internal Medicine overstates the risks of central venous catheter placements, asserting that 3% of CVC placements result in either arterial puncture, pneumothorax, bloodstream infection, or deep venous thrombosis, within 3 days.

Let’s take a look at the methods they used to arrive at this surprising finding. 

Authors included 130 stud…