Does anyone have experience with long term foley catheter use? My 95 yo mother is on hospice, but is no where near actively dying. She had a foley inserted while at the hospice inpatient facility for severe pain after a fall. She's been home for a month now and the visiting hospice RN says it doesn't need to be changed. I've read that they don't need changed on a "regular basis," but shouldn't they be changed at some point? Further info - no UTI. I'm not sure how to tell if the catheter is becoming clogged, but it's not completely clogged. The bag and tubing have been changed once. The tubing is somewhat hazy and the bag is discoloring again.
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My response to your question would be rather long so I have attached two PDFs and two websites that explain foley catheter care. I hope that they can answer your questions.
Years ago, foley catheters used to be changed every month but studies have shown that changing foley catheters monthly or on a regular basis (whether it needed to be changed or not) actually INCREASED the number of urinary tract infections instead of decreasing them (thus defeating the goal of changing the catheters monthly which was "to decrease the chance of infection"). Please let us know if you have any other questions after reading the PDFs &/or looking at the websites.
patienteducation.osumc.edu/Documents/fol-male.pdf
www.bardmedical.com/media/629466/ud_foleycatheterpteducationguide.pdf
www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education/caring-your-urinary-foley-catheter
medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000140.htm
P.S. Here is a smile for today:) I knew a Doctor Foley who was an UROLOGIST and a Doctor Foley who was a DENTIST!!! I also knew a Doctor Bonebreaker who was a Orthopedic Doctor!!