Suprapubic catheter coming out urethra

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Today at the end of my shift, one of my NARs reported to me that a resident's catheter had fallen out. This resident is also slightly obese, making the lady partsl area difficult to see. After finishing with the insertion, the aid continued to get the resident ready for the day. Approximately 3 minutes later she told me the catheter probe was sticking out of the urethra.

After removing the catheter, the second one went in and was draining without issue. I updated the on-call, he said to monitor her but did not seem overly concerned with it.

Is this a common issue? I have changed this resident's catheter 5 or 6 times in the past without any issues. She did not have any pain, or notable bleeding an hour after the second catheter was inserted, but it is still concerning to me.

Specializes in ER, PCU, UCC, Observation medicine.

was the balloon still inflated??

Specializes in Hospice/HHC.

I just had this happen to me, and am also wondering how normal is this? I was called out due to the foley not draining. I irrigated the catheter, and immediately noticed that urine was coming out of her urethra/lady partsl area. I then deflated the balloon, and re positioned it. Pt. had not complaints of pain/discomfort. After all that, I went to change her bed liners (since she had been leaking), and upon cleaning her find the catheter tip with balloon inflated sticking out. Wonder if it is a possibility the catheter tip went through the urethra. I was under the impression urologist usually surgically close the urethat area when doing a supra-pubic catheter. Anyone have input on this?

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