Plastic waste and price when using intermittent catheterization compared to indwelling catheter in peri- and immediate postoperative patients with hip fractures

Patients with a hip fracture have an indwelling catheter (IUC) before, during, and shortly after the operation. Recent publications have shown that IUC does not result in more cystitis (UTI) than SIC (sterile intermittent catheterization) when only used for a short period. An issue that has hitherto not been taken into consideration is the volume of plastic waste and the associated costs generated by either method. Indeed, nursing staff have expressed concerns regarding this issue, perceiving that SIC generates more plastic waste than IUC. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the weight of plastic in grams, and the associated costs generated by using IUC versus SIC.

Equipment for inserting an IUC and leaving it in situ for three days, and equipment for the use of SIC for three days was chosen. Non plastic items were removed, and each plastic item was weighed separately. The prices of the equipment in the hospital's price list were used for the price calculations. The amount of plastic and the price for using IUC or SIC for one and three days were calculated.

SIC for 1 day results in 2.2 times more plastic waste than IUC. SIC for three days results in 5.8 times more plastic waste than IUC. SIC for 1 day is 4.2 times more expensive than IUC. SIC for 3 days is 12 times more expensive than IUC.

These results confirm the concerns expressed by the nursing staff, demonstrating that the use of SIC (sterile intermittent catheterization) results in substantially more plastic waste than IUC (indwelling catheter), while also being considerably more costly.