Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adverse outcomes of long-term urethral catheterization include urethral erosion, ventral penile erosion, meatal erosion, and device-related necrosis of adjacent tissues.
CASE: We describe the case of a 63-year-old male resident of a local skilled nursing facility who was transported to our hospital for evaluation of spiking fevers and possible infection surrounding his percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube insertion. Physical examination revealed an unsecured urinary catheter inserted into an unnatural opening in his groin, just medial to the shaft of his penis. Further inspection revealed that the catheter had eroded completely through the urethra and the lateroventral skin of penis to the penoscrotal junction. We then inspected every patient in our 100-bed hospital and documented the number of patients with Foley catheters (34%) and of those who were secured (18%).
CONCLUSION: Existing research suggests that negative outcomes associated with urethral and meatal erosions can be prevented by properly securing the indwelling catheter. Though this is one of the easiest and most effective practices, we found a low level of compliance with this preventive measure.