Experts Offer Catheter Removal Recommendations for Surgery

A group of experts has recommended that indwelling urinary catheters be used sparingly or removed as soon as possible following surgery. The recommendations, published recently in BMJ Quality & Safety, include input from two panels and follow a literature review of general and orthopedic surgery clinical scenarios. The study was performed with AHRQ funding. Careful use of urinary catheters is an important way to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) and related adverse events. The experts recommended that catheters be avoided altogether for procedures such as appendectomy and single knee replacement. The complete set of recommendations is available from the journal. This work stems from an AHRQ-funded project to apply the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program to prevent CAUTI in hospitals. A toolkit was developed to help frontline clinicians apply the knowledge learned in that project.