Predictors of Catheter-Related Bladder Discomfort After Surgery: A Literature Review

Indwelling bladder catheters are routinely used in clinical practice. Patients may experience postoperative indwelling catheter-related bladder discomfort (CRBD). This study aimed to perform a literature review to identify predictors of postoperative CRBD.

We searched PubMed for relevant articles published between 2000 and 2020 using the search items "CRBD", "catheter-related bladder discomfort", and "prediction". Additionally, we searched for articles that matched the research objectives from the references of the extracted articles. We included only prospective observational studies involving human participants and excluded interventional studies, observational studies that did not report sample sizes, or observational studies that did not research on predictors of CRBD. We narrowed our search to the keyword "prediction" and found five references. We selected five studies that met the objectives of the study as the target literature.

Using the keywords "CRBD" and "catheter-related bladder discomfort", we identified 69 published articles. The results were narrowed down by the keyword "prediction", and five studies that recruited 1,147 patients remained. The predictors of CRBD can be divided into four factors: 1) patient factors; 2) surgical factors; 3) anesthesia factors; and 4) device and insertion technique factors.

Our study suggests that patients with predictors of CRBD should be closely monitored to reduce postoperative patient suffering, and their quality of life should be improved after anesthesia.