Burden of Prolonged Urinary Catheter Use after Urinary Retention in a Tertiary Hospital, South-South Nigeria

Background: Urinary retention is a worldwide health problem mostly noted in elderly men who may have benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), cancer of the prostate (Cap), urethral stricture disease or bladder tumour. It has a negative impact on the quality of life (QOL) of the sufferer as well as national or global economy. Urethral catheterization is used to relief the retention and suprapubic cystostomy where the urethral route fails or it’s contraindicated. Complications have been reported especially when catheters are worn for prolonged periods of time. The aim of this work was to study the burden of prolonged use of catheters after urinary retention. Patients and Method: The study was conducted in March 2021 and lasted for four (4) weeks to prevent data duplication since our patients change their catheters once in 4 weeks. A questionnaire was designed and completed by all patients after informed consent was obtained. Data collected were analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20.0 and results used for discussion. Results: Eighty two (82) patients with a mean age of 63.12±14.67 years were studied. Aetiology of urinary retention was BPH, Cap, and Urethral stricture in 58.5%, 19.5% and 23.0% respectively. More patients were in their 7th and 8th decades of life. Most patients had indwelling urethral catheter (65.9%), average duration of catheter use was 21.26 months. There was no statistical significant difference in the mean duration between those who used SPC and Urethral catheter (P= .411).Ninety-eight (98.7%) of patients had complications and 22% of them reported more than five (5) complications. Qol correlated poorly with those who had sexual issues due to prolonged catheter use. The estimated annual cost for catheter change was between N1.5million and N2.0 million in our facility. Conclusion: Prolonged catheter use is a source of concern to patients and poses serious health-related and financial burden to them.