Bladder rehabilitation in spinal cord injury patients

The relative efficacy of intermittent catheterisation, self or assisted, over indwelling catheterisation was studied on 44 patients of different extent of spinal cord lesions. All the surviving cases (9) of incomplete cord lesion became catheter free irrespective of the method of catheterisation. In these patients urine was also found to be infection free by the 5th week of admission. Twenty-seven cases of complete cord lesion (out of a total of 35) became catheter free, of whom 18 patients were on intermittent catheterisation (out of a total of 20) and 9 patients were on indwelling catheter (out of a total of 15 cases). In the later group incidence of urine infection was higher. Other complications like urethral trauma were comparable between patients with indwelling catheter and patients with intermittent, self or assisted, catheterisation.