In modern-day medicine, the use of intravascular catheters has become unavoidable. In the United States, hospitals and clinics purchase more than 150 million intravascular devices each year of which more than 5 million are central venous catheters. However, their use does not come without risk. It puts patients in danger of mechanical, thrombotic and infectious complications (catheter-related infections [CRI]), the most important of which is catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI). CRBSI is associated with a significant increase in hospital stay and, therefore, cost of patient management, morbidity and probably also mortality. The increase in expenses was estimated to be 15,965 US dollars per patient with a CRBSI in 1994 and even 56,167 US dollars in another more recent study.