Foley catheter

[honeybuns89]

Hi, I was just wondering what does it mean when you would see some blood in the foley catheter and what is the biggest harm of that? Thanks

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

We are happy to help with homework.....be we need to know what you think first. Some blood .....qualify what "some blood" means. There are a multitude of reasons from traumatic insertion, to surgery, to kidney stones , to tumors to baldder infection.

[tnh254]

In addition to the previous possiblities there is always the confused patient who likes to pull on tubes and cause damage to the urethra. I have found alot of times this is what causes the bleeding. If it is a man does he have prostate issues. There are alot of possiblities, have you read the physicians progress notes, there is often explanations there.

[blt99]

And (aside from the ever present UTI fear with foleys) the biggest concern is clotting and foley tube blocking.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

All, please note: a Foley catheter is named for Foley, the person who invented it. :yelclap: Therefore it is properly capitalized. I know you won't always see it done that way, but one of the things you can get at AN can be the proper way to document your observations.

Also: "Alot" is not a word. "Allot" (two Ls) means "to parcel out, to assign a share or portion." "A lot" (two words) means a piece of land. If you are quantifying something, say, "much" or "many" or "enough to saturate five 4x4s," or such. Your charting and written product for school will get better grades if you change this.

Returning to hematuria... if there is blood in urine, you should find out whether it is expected (as post operative from bladder or prostate surgery, for example), or a symptom to be diagnosed (bladder cancer? trauma, including Foley insertion, ureteral dilation, or cystoscopy? bladder infection? foreign object of amateur origin --eeewwww?) Is it gross, meaning you can see it easily with the naked eye, or microscopic and found on urinalysis? Is it clotting?

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Usually, a little bit or moderate amount of hematuria, depending on the cause, is just reported to the doc and gets watched, he or she may prescribe more fluids, probably a KUB...in a lot of cases (minor catheter trauma, etc) the condition is self-limiting.

But yes, I agree, we would have to know more about the patient and yes, again, it would be good to know what you think.