How much urine CAN a bladder hold?

Specialties Urology

Published

SNF. Got report that "Mr. Smith" was acting 'funny'. After report I checked him- his belly was bigger than a basketball. He had a catheter, with scant/foul urine. I decided to try to irrigate it. Blocked. I replaced it, and the flow was so furious I had to clamp the line, in order to have time to empty the drain bag. As I had other things going on, it took me several trips to get back to him to empty that bag. Total outout was 10,000 cc. I know now, that had I allowed his bladder to empty all at once, it could have harmed him big time. My naivety saved him some trauma....

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Or maybe my replacing that catheter saved him some trauma. In any event, I've never seen such a sight. His belly deflated like a popped helium balloon.

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

Yikes!:nailbiting:

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I am absolutely amazed! The most I've ever seen was 3 litre bladder on someone with chronic retention!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.
SNF. Got report that "Mr. Smith" was acting 'funny'. After report I checked him- his belly was bigger than a basketball. He had a catheter with scant/foul urine. I decided to try to irrigate it. Blocked. I replaced it, and the flow was so furious I had to clamp the line, in order to have time to empty the drain bag. As I had other things going on, it took me several trips to get back to him to empty that bag. Total outout was 10,000 cc. I know now, that had I allowed his bladder to empty all at once, it could have harmed him big time. My naivety saved him some trauma....[/quote']

Holy cow! That's 22lbs of urine!! I would be very worried about that patient, prob not out of the danger zone yet. Although, I've never heard of such a thing!

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SNF. Got report that "Mr. Smith" was acting 'funny'. After report I checked him- his belly was bigger than a basketball. He had a catheter, with scant/foul urine. I decided to try to irrigate it. Blocked. I replaced it, and the flow was so furious I had to clamp the line, in order to have time to empty the drain bag. As I had other things going on, it took me several trips to get back to him to empty that bag. Total outout was 10,000 cc. I know now, that had I allowed his bladder to empty all at once, it could have harmed him big time. My naivety saved him some trauma....

A bladder holding 10 liters, 2.6 gallons, of urine? Wow, just wow!

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I forget what can happen if a bladder that full were to drain all at once, I recall it could be serious. Again, good thing I had to keep coming and going. His mental state didn't seem to change, he was aphasic, as well. I did call the provider, I don't recall any urgent new orders being given, no. And oviously the I/O sheets from the prior shifts were full of BS, he hadn't been touched since maybe the before?

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

The answer to the original question, "How much urine can a bladder hold?" is "It depends on whether or not the bladder belongs to a nurse or not!"

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

How did his urine retention go on so long without being noticed? Nobody noticed he hadn't voided in days? If he had a foley, wasn't anyone maintaining the bag, doing I & O's on him? What did the MD think of this when you called him/her? This has all sorts of wrong going on here.

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How did his urine retention go on so long without being noticed? Nobody noticed he hadn't voided in days? If he had a foley, wasn't anyone maintaining the bag, doing I & O's on him? What did the MD think of this when you called him/her? This has all sorts of wrong going on here.

Obviously he had been ignored for a long time, the I/O was bogus, etc. Even the nurse that gave me report obviously didn't bother to check him. The place was a rather worst-case scenario of a SNF. The MD didn't bat an eye.

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He would probably have hydronephrosis to some degree, and would likely go into post obstructive diuresis.

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