Impacting health care: study of a reusable urinary drainage system

This study of a reusable urinary leg bag system was undertaken to ascertain possible increased incidence of urinary tract infection attributable to reusing urinary leg bags. The fourteen patients involved had diagnoses of "neurogenic bladder," and required long-term drainage. Ten were on Foley catheter drainage and four were on external drainage. Before the reusable bags were placed into use, urine cultures were collected to establish baseline information about prevalent urinary organisms for each subject. During the study period, random urine specimens for culture/sensitivity were collected. Analysis of the findings of this study demonstrates no increase in incidence of urinary tract infection attributable to use of reuseable leg bags for urinary drainage.