Young infants, particularly following gastrointestinal surgery, are at high risk of septicaemia during parenteral nutrition. Febrile illness in the absence of focal infection inevitably raises suspicion of central venous catheter sepsis and poses the following dilemma: remove the catheter (which may then prove uninfected) and lose venous access, or leave the catheter and risk clinical deterioration? We examined retrospectively the isolates from blood culture during febrile episodes in 13 children who received long-term (> 2 months) parenteral nutrition via a central venous catheter, and assessed the effectiveness of through-catheter antibiotic treatment during 76 episodes of blood culture positive sepsis. Coagulase-negative Staphylococci accounted for only 16% of positive isolates, with yeasts accounting for 5%, and Gram-negative organisms accounting for 46%, suggesting that infection was often associated with bacterial translocation from the gastrointestinal tract. Treatment with the central venous catheter left in situ was successful in resolving infection in 53 (70%) of septic episodes. These findings indicate that, in this specific group of patients, through-catheter antibiotic treatment is often effective in treating septicaemia. When long-term venous access is essential, this approach should be tried before recourse to central venous catheter removal.