Care with an indwelling urinary catheter. Tips for avoiding problems in independent and institutionalized patients.

Ideally, no patient would have an indwelling urethral catheter. However, certain circumstances require long-term catheterization. In these patients, bacterial colonization is to be expected. Morbidity and mortality related to long-term catheterization can be minimized by attention to the details of catheter care, prompt treatment of often minimally symptomatic catheter-related infections, and attentiveness to changes in patient condition or alternative treatments that may permit catheter removal.