Blue Urine

[Carebear77]

I'm a hospice RN and last night I received a call from the patients daughter stating her mom had blue urine, and to prove her point she sent me a video of it, and it looks like blue kool-aid. Has anyone ever seen blue urine and if so what would be the cause if this. Obviously with her being a hospice patient we are not seeking treatment or doing any testing. She is not taking any medication or eating anything that would cause this. I have never seen anything like this before and was curious if anyone else has seen this? Can't wait to hear what you all have to say.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Purple urine bag syndrome is a medical syndrome where purple discoloration of urine occurs in people with urinary catheters and co-existent urinary tract infection. Bacteria in the urine produce the enzyme indoxyl phosphatase. This converts indoxyl sulfate in the urine into the red and blue colored compounds indirubin and indigo. The most commonly implicated bacteria are Providencia stuartii, Providencia rettgeri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Morganella morganii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

http://harvardpartnersinternational.staywellsolutionsonline.com/HealthNewsLetters/69,L0312g

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

I do know that if the patient has mets to the bone, there are changes to the calcium levels to result in blue urine.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

She has cancer? Hypercalcemia? You see this with some malignancies c bone metastasis-- perhaps that's what's going on?

Edit: posted before I saw jadelpn's post

[BillyF]

I also had a case with blue urine and the cause was methelyne blue.

But when I googled I found out that candy with blue dye can cause it as well (SteadyHealth.com It seems very unlikely to me.

[anchorRN, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Propofol can turn uring a bluish-green color, after the patient has been on it for a while. Seen it many times in the ICU, however I highly doubt your patient is on propofol as a hospice patient. Thought I'd toss it out there tho :)

And yes as many others have said, methylene blue will do this also.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

the blue dye in the roxinal...I'm just guessing since this is a hospice patient.