The use of CVC represents one of the major risk factors for sepsis, a highly prevalent disease in ICUs. Blood cultures obtained prior to antibiotic administration are part of the SSC Resuscitation Bundle and essential for the outcome of the patient. The CDC criteria to diagnose sepsis do not take into account the overall number of blood cultures obtained and thus, lead to an underestimation of the true incidence of sepsis. Up to now, few data is available on the total number of blood cultures obtained and the relation to the incidence of sepsis in German ICUs.