Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSCatheter clamping after hip fracture questioned
There is little benefit from clamping the urinary catheter before its removal in patients with hip fracture, according to Swedish researchers.
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, they said: “Difficulties to return to normal bladder function after removal of the urinary catheter are frequent in patients with hip fracture. Clamping the urinary catheter before removal is proposed to shorten the amount of time required to return to normal bladder function.”
In order to test its efficacy, they studied 113 patients aged over 50 with hip fracture, who either had their urinary catheter clamped before removal or removed with free drainage.
They found no significant differences between the groups regarding the time required to regain normal bladder function, the number of patients requiring re-catheterisation and the mean time in hospital.
The authors said: “Clamping is an additional task for the nursing staff in the removal of the indwelling urinary catheter. Therefore, when considering the present results, it seems that clamping the indwelling urinary catheters in patients with hip fracture is not indicated.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 16-Feb-2010 9:48 pm
You have to ask why catheters are being clamped in this day and age, when a flip-flo valve would do the job . This would not take up nursing time and would help the patients bladder tone, plus re-educating the patient to go to the toilet.
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