Interventions to minimise the initial use of indwelling urinary catheters in acute care: a systematic review

Indwelling urinary catheters (IUC) are the primary cause of urinary tract infection in acute care. Current research aimed at reducing the use of IUCs in acute care has focused on the prompt removal of catheters already placed. This paper evaluates attempts to minimise the initial placement of IUCs.

To evaluate systematically the evidence of the effectiveness of interventions to minimise the initial placement of IUCs in adults in acute care.

Studies incorporating an intervention to reduce the initial placement of IUCs in an acute care environment in patients aged 18 and over that reported on the incidence of IUC placement were included in the review. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist has been used as a tool to guide the structure of the review.

MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, National Health Service Centre for Review and Dissemination and Cochrane Library.

A systematic review to identify and synthesise research reporting on the impact on interventions to minimise the use of IUCs in acute care published up to July 2011.

2689 studies were scanned for eligibility. Only eight studies were found that reported any change (increase or decrease) in the level of initial placement of IUCs as a result of an intervention in acute care. Of the eight, six had an uncontrolled before-after design. Seven demonstrated a reduction in the initial use of IUCs post-intervention. There was insufficient evidence to support or rule out the effectiveness of interventions due to the small number of studies, limitations in study design and variation in clinical environments. Notably, each study listed the indications considered to be acceptable uses of an IUC and there was substantial variation between the lists of indications.

More work is needed to establish when the initial placement of an IUC is appropriate in order to better understand when IUCs are overused and inform the development of methodologically robust research on the potential of interventions to minimise the initial placement of IUCs.