Difficulty cathing a female patient

[happycath]

I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

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[JudoKing01]

Poor technique? No, just kidding. Maybe she had a BPH.

What was the problem? Couldn't get it in? Or didn't get any urine out?

 

[Leukocyte]

I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

I would ask this question in the OB/GYN forum.

 

[doc05]

or maybe somebody needs an anatomy lesson.

 

[bobbyseal]

I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

With a thin straight cath this should be fairly easy. Oftentimes, women are able to straight cath themselves with no difficulty. Was the patient very tense and tightening her pelvic muscles? Other than that, the thought of poor anatomical knowledge is possible, but with other nurses I'd imagine they'd know the anatomy well. Oh well, just chock it up to one of those many weird things that happens in health care.

 

[JudoKing01]

She could've had a stricture or just a narrow urethra too.

 

[bobbyseal]

She could've had a stricture or just a narrow urethra too.

A stricture is a good thought, but they said she had no know urologic problems. Women rarely get strictures as they're urethra is much shorter than a man's. We tend to fall off of trees and straddle branches, thus leading to strictures.

 

[JudoKing01]

Good point. Perhaps the urethra was just hard to find.

 

[priapoconstante]

Good point. Perhaps the urethra was just hard to find.

Well, this is not that rare, specially if the patient was obese. Or maybe, she had a hypospadic urethra (yes, it does exist in women too, if you don't believe me, look for it in any pediatric urology textbook). And if she had both conditions, I'd understand how difficult was to catheterize her.

 

[bskyhorse]

Cystoscope and urodynamic can find the cause