I just read an article on long-term catheter care on Helium.com. While it does not give out wrong information, it isn’t really all that helpful either, in my opinion. As a person actually wearing a long-term catheter, I didn’t find very much there that I didn’t already know. I also disagree with the author’s advice to throw away your catheter bag once “every several days.” I’m not sure if that is a typo and meant to say “seven” days. If so, it isn’t bad advice, but it needs to be clear that he’s talking about the leg bag, specifically.
The larger capacity (2000 ml) bedside drainage bags, such as the Bard Medical Anti-Reflux Bedside Drainbag Standard, are designed to last at least month. It is usually recommended to discard leg bags (very different from bedside drainage bags) every 10 days or so. The leg bag I use is a Hollister Leg Bag
, which I throw out about every 10-14 days.
The article I mentioned is here: https://www.helium.com/items/1663921-how-to-maintain-a-long-term-urinary-catheter
If you’d like my take on urinary catheter management, see my post here: Urinary Catheter Management.
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