medical question: heart surgery--urine catheter tube

Factual Questions
1

This is a question about surgery and bodily functions.Not exactly TMI, but it’s not the most delicate subject, either.

Why, when a man has open heart surgery, do they insert a urine catheter tube up his penis?
1.what is the function of the catheter?
And 2. wouldn’t it be better to attach an external device to collect urine without the invasive tube that can cause infections?

(And yes, I’m squeamish! )

2

Cyn to GQ stat!

4
  1. The function of a Foley catheter is to drain the bladder, avoiding urinary retention. A person who is unconscious does not usually void urine for many hours.
  2. An external collection device, while non-invasive and lowering the risk of infection, would not drain the bladder, merely collect what was excreted. The bladder would still fill and stretch and distend and retain urine. A Foley constantly drains urine at nearly the same rate it’s created.
    Inserting a Foley is as sterile procedure as it can be, cleaning the meatus of the penis with betadine and using sterile gloves to insert a sterile and sterile gelled catheter into the urinary tract, all done on a sterile field.

Cyn, OB/GYN RN, who has catheterized many many many people, very few of which developed a UTI, but I was trained by the best: all hail Mona H., queen of the catheter!

5

External catheters do exist - they’re pretty commonly called “Texas” catheters. They’re basically a sticky condom. Risks with them are leakage and skin irritation, both from the adhesive and from urine remaining in contact with the skin. The patient has to make a conscious decision to urinate, and getting someone to do that while in bed can be a challenge - you’d need to convince them that they’re not going to wet the bed.

Internal, or “Foley” catheters are more common. By being inserted into the bladder, they bypass conscious effort to urinate - the urine constantly drains out.

Their use is not limited to heart surgery. Pretty much every time I’ve been under anaesthesia, I got a Foley.