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My son is 16 and has an acquired brain injury that has left him tetrapalegic. He had a supra pubic catheter inserted 14 months ago. As he is still in hospital he uses a urine meter type bag (one with the box which can be tipped into a urine bag). He isn’t able to use a leg bag because they don’t seem to drain urine from the bladder as well and the meter bag and if the urine doesn’t drain then with the lack of bladder control he has, he ends up going urethrally so has to wear incontinence pads as well as having the catheter. Has anyone had a similar experience with leg bags and if so how did you get round it? Is there a way to get leg bags to drain better? It just seems that the vacuum in the bag stops urine flowing into it properly unless there is some kind of force. Any time we do use a leg bag (for hydro therapy etc) you see some urine going in tot he bag, then you see the tube just filling up right back to the bladder and nothing else is going in to the bag resulting in a “normal” urination which makes the catheter basically redundant. Not being able to use a leg bag makes getting out a bit more difficult, the catheter has to come up over the waistband of trousers / shorts (hard for urine to flow up hill….) and we have bought catheter bag covers to hide the bag as it has to hang on the side of his wheelchair if we are going anywhere.
If anyone has any experience of this I’d love to hear from youI know from my own experience with a suprapubic, which I had for about six months, that the leg bags didn’t have nearly as much vacuum as the night bags, but I’m not sure exactly why. It could be because of the longer hose, or maybe the valve, I’m not sure. The only time my leg bags would drain decent was when I was in a standing position.
I also found that it was crucial not to allow the hose to get a loop in it, by which I mean at no time could the urine be expected to go uphill, not even a little, except right at the catheter itself. When I drained my bag I also wouldn’t drain it completed, as sometimes that would cause it to lose some vacuum as well.
You might also try the CareCure forums at Rutgers. Just Google it. It’s a great forum for people with SCI.
Clayton
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