Immediate catheter removal after laparoscopic hysterectomy: A retrospective analysis

All patients undergoing a laparoscopic hysterectomy receive an indwelling catheter during surgery. The optimum timing of removal of the catheter is uncertain. A possible advantage of leaving the catheter in up to 12 h after surgery is to reduce the risk of urinary retention. Possible disadvantages are patient discomfort and increased risk of urinary tract infection. Timing of removal of the catheter after laparoscopic hysterectomy has not been studied. Previous studies have assessed timing of catheter removal after abdominal hysterectomy. In these studies immediate removal seems safe and feasible after an uncomplicated hysterectomy. In 2015 immediate catheter removal after an uncomplicated hysterectomy was introduced in our clinic. We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the rate of urinary retentions and the secondary objective was to investigate the rate of urinary tract infections when the indwelling catheter was removed immediate after surgery.

We included all women who underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy from April 2015 until December 2017. Informed consent was obtained from all patients. Medical records were analysed to identify baseline characteristics, surgical details and complications. General practitioners of the included patients were contacted to check for post-operative urinary tract infection up to 6 weeks after surgery.

325 patients underwent an uncomplicated hysterectomy between April 2015 and December 2017. After informed consent we ultimately included 242 cases in our analysis. The mean age of our study population was 50 years. In 194 (802 %) patients the catheter was removed immediately after surgery. Main reason for delayed removal of the catheter was resection of deep endometriosis (n = 21). The incidence of urinary retention was 4,6 % (95 % CI 2,3-8,3 %) in the immediate removal group. In these 9 cases, 5 (2,6 %) where solved after single catheterisation. The remaining 4 patients (2,0 %) had an indwelling catheter for 24 h after which the urinary retention resolved. The incidence of urinary tract infection was 9,3 % (95 % CI 5,8-14,0- %), when the catheter was removed immediately after surgery. The incidence of urinary retention and UTI were respectively 2,1% (95 % CI 0,1-9,8%) and 208 % (95 % CI 11,1-34,0 %) in the cases with delayed catheter removal (N = 48).

Immediate removal of the urine catheter after uncomplicated hysterectomy is safe and results in low levels of urinary retention.