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Published on: October 12, 2017
A unilateral purple urine bag syndrome in a patient with bilateral nephrostomy tubes
Adil Karim1, Firas Abed1, Ghassan Bachuwa1
1Department of Internal Medicine, Hurley Medical Center, Flint, Michigan, USA.
Abstract:
A change in the colour of urine is always of clinical significance, and a source of concern for the patient and his physician. Among the different urine colours observed, purple is the least common. Although purple discolouration of a catheter and a urine bag is an uncommon finding, it was reported in the literature as early as 1978, by Barlow and Dickson. We present a unique case of purple urine bag syndrome in a patient with bilateral nephrostomy tubes (NT) and associated urine bags (UB) with only the left nephrostomy tube and urine bag exhibiting the purple colour, which resolved with a course of appropriate antibiotics eradicating the causative bacterial pathogen, and change of NT and UB.
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