Compliance and complications of clean intermittent catheterization in the spinal cord injured patient.

The optimal management of the neuropathic bladder secondary to spinal cord injury remains unsettled. Some have advocated the use of chronic indwelling catheters in tetraplegic patients supposedly due to comparable complication rates with non-indwelling catheter management. We assessed the urological complication and compliance rates in a group of spinal cord injured patients followed over a mean of 5.9 years. Complication rates from clean intermittent catheterization were comparable if not better than the rates previously reported for clean intermittent catheterization and significantly better than chronically catheterized patients. The compliance rate in our series was 71% as determined by the number of patients remaining on clean intermittent catheterization at their last urological follow-up. We conclude that the use of clean intermittent catheterization can provide optimal management of the lower urinary tract in spinal cord injured patients.