AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to determine whether there was enough evidence to conclude that silver-alloy urinary catheters reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections compared with silicone or latex urinary catheters in adult inpatients.
METHODS: Randomised control trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses were identified by searching relevant databases. Relevant papers were judged against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Ten per cent of papers were assessed by a second reviewer. Following the application of a numerical filtering tool, six papers were rejected and eleven papers were retained.
RESULTS: Of the 11 papers retained, there were eight studies, as some studies published more than one paper. The integrated results did present a consistent pattern favourable towards the efficacy of silver-alloy urinary catheters to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infection.
CONCLUSION: The collective evidence divulged an emerging pattern favouring the efficacy of silver-alloy urinary catheters to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Owing to the poor quality of some individual studies included in other systematic reviews and the inability to carry out meta-analysis because of significant heterogeneity, definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from the study.
RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Given the significant prevalence of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, early indications of improved infection rate outcomes using silver-alloy urinary catheters should not be dismissed.
Written by:
Beattie M, Taylor J. Are you the author?
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, University of Stirling, Centre for Health Science, Inverness, Scotland, UK.
Reference: J Clin Nurs. 2011 Aug;20(15-16):2098-108.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03561.x.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21418360
