Efficacy of bladder irrigation in preventing urinary tract infections associated with short-term catheterization in comatose patients: A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Bladder irrigation can be performed to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), but its efficacy has been not reported in short-term indwelling urinary catheterization. This clinical trial aimed to examine the efficacy of bladder irrigation with normal saline solution in preventing CAUTI in comatose patients admitted to intensive care units.

Eligible patients were randomized to the experimental group or control group. The experimental group received daily bladder irrigation with 450 cc sterile normal saline, in 3 150-mL doses, for 3 consecutive days. Data on signs of CAUTI, including urine culture, axillary body temperature (primary outcomes), and other urine and blood parameters (secondary outcomes) were obtained at baseline and 5 days later.

Results of group comparisons and logistic regression analysis that controlled for fluid intake showed that the risk of CAUTI decreased by 99% in the experimental group compared with the control group (odds ratio, 0.01; P < .001). Additional findings indicated a decrease in axillary body temperature and improvements in urine appearance, urinary red cells and white cells, and erythrocyte sedimentation rates and white-cell counts in the blood following bladder irrigation.

Daily bladder irrigation with normal saline during 3 days demonstrated efficacy in preventing CAUTI in comatose patients.

American journal of infection control. 2018 Jun 19 [Epub]

Farahnaz Ramezani, Mahnaz Khatiban, Farshid Rahimbashar, Ali Reza Soltanian

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran., Mother & Child Care Research Center, Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran. Electronic address: ., Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran., Modeling of Noncommunicable Disease Research Center, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.