Removal of urinary catheters: midnight vs 0600 hours

In the fields of both nursing and medicine there is a dearth of published literature on the optimum time to remove indwelling urinary catheters (IDCs) following urological surgery. Tradition seems to be in favour of removing IDCs at 0600 hours despite a lack of evidence to support this practice. This study was undertaken to determine whether midnight removal of IDCs resulted in patients' resuming normal voiding patterns. A prospective clinical trial was conducted to determine the impact midnight removal of urinary catheters would have on the patients' voiding pattern, and subsequent discharge from hospital. One hundred and sixty patients were entered into the study. The patients were allocated at random to have their urinary catheter removed either at midnight or at 0600 hours. Patients who had their catheters removed at midnight passed a greater volume of urine with both their first (268 ml compared with 177 ml; P<0.0001) and second voids (322 ml compared with 195 ml; P<0.0001) than their counterparts in the 0600 group. This permitted earlier discharge from hospital. The results reported in this study support the findings of earlier research that midnight removal of IDC leads to an earlier resumption of normal voiding patterns, permits earlier discharge from hospital and appears to reduce patients' anxiety. The recommendation from this study is that there should be a change in hospital policy so that the majority of IDCs are removed at midnight.