Clinical skills: how to remove and change a suprapubic cathether

Suprapubic catheterization is becoming more widely used to drain the urinary bladder either short or long term or is inserted where initial urethral or recatheterization is problematic. No matter where you work as a nurse, either in the hospital, community, hospice or nursing care home, sooner or later you will have to deal with a patient with a suprapubic catheter in situ. One of the concerns nurses encounter when changing the suprapubic catheter is what action to take when the catheter appears to have become stuck when removing it. The main cause of this problem is owing to a 'cuffing' effect occurring to the deflated catheter balloon, especially if using 100% silicone catheters. This article looks at the problem of removing a suprapubic catheter that has become stuck and how to change such catheters safely.