the discomfort of the hanging urine-bag
Many people need to be catheterized for various reasons.
Some of them because they are being surged, some of them because they are going through a medical procedure, and some of them because of a continuous medical condition, like the impossibility of giving urine, some of them because of old age and geriatric issues related to the urologic system. Every patient catheterized is familiar with the well-known issue of the irritating heavy urine bag, hanging from the catheter, and pulling the catheter out from the urethra.
That situation has a few side effects:
A. The pulling is causing the patient a lot of pain.
B. The “Dancing Bag” causes the patient to be ashamed and it reduces his self-confidence to hang with other people.
C. continues pulling of the urine bag ultimately causes internal rubbing in the urethra which causes Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI).
Most hospitals and medical teams use adhesive strips to try and anchor the catheter tube to the patient’s leg. Yet, this cheap “solution” does not solve any of the issues and does not address the patient’s pain, or needs.
cAUTI - the silent killer
The presence of the catheter in the urethra is not a natural situation. The patient’s normal life activity and body movements cause internal movements of the catheter in the urethra. These small movements cause rubbing and irritating of the urethra, ultimately developing into infections. A very large percentage of catheterized patients develop Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) after just a few days with a catheter. The chance of developing CAUTI raises each day that passes.
Having CAUTI is very distressing for the patients. Even minor CAUTI is disturbing, painful, and causes a decrease in the patient’s comfort and self-confidence. The patient is deprived of maintaining normal day-to-day activity, sometimes even from basic actions such as walking freely, working as usual, sleeping, visiting family and friends, and enjoying hiking.
There are estimated to be 449,334 CAUTI events per year around the world. Each CAUTI is associated with a medical cost of $758. Moreover, CAUTIs can lead to more serious complications such as sepsis and endocarditis, and it is estimated that over 13,000 deaths each year are associated with healthcare-associated UTIs.
the dangers of traumatic pull-out
Medical studies have shown that 11–17 percent of all catheters are unintentionally torn out, and 5% of all urological catheters are traumatically pulled. Some 25% of all hospitalized patients, as well as people confined to bed in hospice and nursing homes, have urinary catheters. Many of these inpatients tend to extract their catheter tubes, thereby causing themselves unnecessary pain, injury, and increased risk of severe damage.
These patients may be pre or post-operative patients, patients who cannot pass urine such as paraplegics, or ones who suffer from incontinence. After the catheter tube is inserted into the urethra and up into the bladder, a balloon is inflated in the bladder to anchor it. If the catheter is pulled out accidentally or is yanked out by a disoriented patient, while the balloon is inflated, irreversible injury can result.
In some cases, the medical team, or even the patient’s guests, accidentally tumbles and pulls the catheter very strongly, causing minor to major injury to the patient’s ureter and bladder. Genitourinary trauma is quite often the result of an inflated balloon during the accidental pulling of the Foley catheter. Any unintentional pulling may cause severe damage to the bladder or urethra. A catheterized hospital patient averages five ‘catheter days’. Traumatic extraction generally adds 0.5% ‘catheter days’ to a hospital stay.