I just read an article about The Simon Foundation for Continence, and their series of conferences called Innovating for Continence: The Engineering Challenge. In 2011 they invite three experts in the fields of infections disease, urinary tract infections and urology – Roger Feneley, Calvin Kunin and David Stickler to speak at the conference. The theme was that indwelling Foley catheters are simply too risky to be so commonly used, due to high rates of mortality and other costs to the health care system.
They said that the design of a Foley catheter “violated the integrity of the sophisticated defense mechanisms that protect the bladder from bacterial infection” when used for long-term catheterization.
Foley Catheter
A Foley catheter is the type with a balloon close the the tip of the end that sits in your bladder. After catheter insertion, the person inserting it inflates the little balloon with saline so that it will not pull through your urethra (or abdominal wall opening in the case of a suprapubic catheter). See picture on the left. When inserted through the urethra, by far the most common method, the balloon sits just on top of the bladder opening with the tip, which has holes for draining the urine, sticking out of the top of the balloon.
Foley catheter in bladder
The primary focus of concern for the three researchers is that with a Foley catheter in place, the bladder cannot fully drain because the holes that drain the urine are too high in the bladder, on top of the balloon. See picture on the right. This means that there will always be urine in the bladder at the level of the balloon and below. The cycle of filling and refilling in the bladder is crucial for the defense against bacterial infection.
Suprapubic catheter
On top of that (no pun intended), the tip of the the Foley catheter can damage the lining of the bladder, further increasing the risk of infection. This may be more common with suprapubic catheters, because they are inserted through the abdominal wall (see pic on left). In that case, the balloon can sometimes fall away from the opening, allowing the tip (lumen) to occasionally dig into the bladder wall. The video below shows some pretty amazing shots of this happening, among other problems associated with the SP Foley catheter.
The call to action espoused by all three experts here is for medical device manufacturers to create an up-to-date device that can avoid the problems associated with Foley catheters, which have been around and used virtually unchanged since Dr. Foley’s invention in 1937. Technology in medical implants, as well as across the board, has advanced considerably since 1937, so surely there must be a better way to perform the simple task of draining urine from the bladder.
See the video below:
Dear Sir I am wearing Foley suprapubic catheter I am in constant stinging pain tip of penis I understand the Duette suprapubic catheter could help but how do I get the Duette can you please help Regards
Hi Edmond. It depends on where you live. Officially, the Duette is only available through DME companies in the US. Poiesis Medical are working hard to be able to distribute world-wide as soon as possible.
But I’m not sure if a Duette would help with pain in the tip of the penis. Its innovation is that it has 2 balloons inside the bladder so that you don’t get constant pinching pain from inside the bladder. That also helps prevent UTIs.
If you have a suprapubic catheter, it seems strange that your penis would hurt though, since the SP tube comes out of the belly and NOT the penis. Can you say why your penis hurts? Maybe then I could offer some advice.
Cheers,
Ken
Elmund, that’s how I found this site. Not only the frenulum area inside the end of my penis is having terrible, thankfully intermittent pain, but inside its urethra tube at the base of my penis too. I have to pee 6 and often more times every night. The pain has to subside enough to return to sleep each time. This has been my life for four years.
The Duette catheter relieved most of this pain, but casts far more than my retirement affords.
This same pain occurs with passing the hard stools my traumatized bowel has.
Where do you have to live to get the
Where do you have to live to get the duette catherter??
What state– Where ???
Hi William. You only have to live in the US or US territories. You can get them through most any DME (durable medical equipment) supplier. If you put something like “DME your city” (putting your city/state in where I wrote “your city”) into Google, you’ll get several results. Just call one close by and ask them if they can supply you with some. The Duette does not require a prescription, so you CAN simply go in and pay them the $13 or so for a Duette. But if you are having your medical insurance pay for your stuff, you may need to check with your doctor and/or the DME to work out the billing.
I hope that helps!
Ken
What can I do with the extra u’ll boxes of Foley self catheters where can I give them to less fortunate My husband passed and The Company will not take them back
Shirley. I’m sorry to hear about your husband. And I really don’t know who might take them. If it were me, I might ask a local nursing home? Not sure beyond that though. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.