Reducing the risk of potential complications through proactive management

The aim of this article is to encourage a proactive approach to indwelling urethral catheter management. Catheters are rarely trouble free, and in view all the possible complications, which include tissue trauma, blockage and bypassing, the use of indwelling urethral catheters should only be considered after all other possible approaches to care have been reviewed. Polymicrobial populations of bacteria, which are commonly resistant to drugs and may be impossible to eliminate from the bladder while the catheter is in place, will inevitably infect the urine of a patient with a catheter. (Zimakoff et al, 1995).