Changing Out a Supra Pubic Catheter

[diane227, LPN, RN]

I had a little learning experience the other day that I though I would share with you guys in case you run into this problem. I had to change out the supra pubic catheter on a guy but we could not get the catheter to track into the bladder. The catheter would track out from the stoma and out through his member. So I placed a foley into his member and inflated the balloon. Once I did that I instilled about 200 ml of saline into his bladder until the saline begin to come out of the stoma. I then inserted the new supra pubic catheter into the stoma, inflated the balloon and hooked it to the bag. I then pulled the foley out of the member. The urologist told me afterward that since his bladder was empty, that may have caused it to track out the member. Anyway, thought it might be a useful tool for someone in the future.

[AimeeJo RN]

Thanks for the info. I have a suggestion as well. At my last job we had a patient who ended up with peritonitis and sepsis, when his suprapubic catheter was changed 4 times in less than 2 days, the nurses were having trouble with the catheter and each shift decided to replace the catheter. Finally after the fourth change when the nurse noticed the catheter flushes weren't coming out into the drainage bag the MD was notified. Somewhere along the way the catheter was in the wrong place.

[caliotter3]

Thank you for the useful hint. Nice to have these suggestions available for those situations where you run into a problem.