Guidelines for preventing urinary retention and bladder damage during hospital care

To develop evidence-based guidelines for adult patients in order to prevent urinary retention and to minimise bladder damage and urinary tract infection.

Urinary retention causing bladder damage is a well known complication in patients during hospital care. The most common treatment for urinary retention is an indwelling urinary catheter, which causes 80% of hospital-acquired urinary tract infections. Appropriate use of bladder ultrasonography can reduce the rate of bladder damage as well as the need to use an indwelling urinary catheter. It can also lead to a decrease in the rate of urinary tract infections, a lower risk of spread of multiresistant Gram-negative bacteria, and lower hospital costs.

An expert group was established, and a literature review was performed.

On the basis of literature findings and consensus in the expert group, guidelines for clinical situations were constructed.

The main points of the guidelines are the following: identification of risk factors for urinary retention, managing patients at risk of urinary retention, strategies for patients with urinary retention and patient documentation and information.

Using literature review and consensus technique based on a multiprofessional group of experts, evidence-based guidelines have been developed. Although consensus was reached, there are parts of the guidelines where the knowledge is weak.

These guidelines are designed to be easy to use in clinical work and could be an important step towards minimising bladder damage and hospital-acquired urinary tract infections and their serious consequences, such as bacteraemia and the spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria in hospitals.