External urinary collection devices (EUCDs) may serve as an alternative to indwelling urinary catheters (IUCs) and decrease the rate of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). PureWick® is a novel female EUCD; however, no study has definitively proven benefit regarding reduction of CAUTIs.
We sought to compare the CAUTI rate and IUC days before and after availability of the PureWick® EUCD at a single institution. We provide a descriptive analysis of female medical patients receiving an EUCD.
A retrospective review of adult female patients admitted to a single institution on a medical service who received an IUC and/or an EUCD was performed. Patients who received an IUC in the 3 months before EUCD availability (PRE) were compared to patients who received an IUC and/or EUCD in the 12 months after (POST).
Out of 848 female patients, 292 received an EUCD in the POST cohort and overall, 656 received an IUC (259 (100%) PRE vs. 397 (67.4%) POST). Compared to the PRE cohort, the POST cohort had a higher number of IUC days (median, 3 vs 2 days, p = 0.001) and a higher rate of CAUTI (infections per 1000 catheter days, 9.3 vs 2.3, p = 0.001). The rate of UTI associated with EUCD use was 9.8 infections per 1000 device days.
While EUCDs might appear to be a promising alternative to IUCs for female patients, this single center pre-/post-analysis found that both the number of IUC days and the CAUTI rate increased after introduction of a female EUCD.
Journal of infection prevention. 2022 Mar 20 [Epub]
Nathan Jasperse, Oscar Hernandez-Dominguez, Jacob S Deyell, Janani P Prasad, Charlene Yuan, Meril Tomy, Catherine M Kuza, Areg Grigorian, Jeffry Nahmias
Department of Emergency Medicine, , Torrance, CA, USALos Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center., Department of Surgery, , Cleveland, OH, USACleveland Clinic., Department of Surgery, , Orange, CA, USAUC Irvine Healthcare., Department of Anesthesia, , Los Angeles, CA, USAUniversity of Southern California.