Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary catheter placement is an extremely common medical intervention. It can be used either temporarily, for example to drain a full bladder, to monitor urine output or it can be indwelling for long term drainage. While urinary catheters are a safe medical practice, complications can and do arise from their use and can be a source of morbidity for hospital or nursing home residents. The term “catheter fever” was used for the first time in 1883 [1] and it has been 50 years since Beeson, et al., recognized the potential harms arising from urethral catheterization and penned an editorial to the American Journal of Medicine titled “The case against the catheter” [2]. Nowadays, it is well recognized that catheter-associated infections (CAUTIs) cause the vast majority of nosocomial urinary tract infections (UTIs) [3, 4]. Designing an effective strategy for prevention of CAUTI presupposes an in depth knowledge of epidemi‐ ology, pathogenesis, microbiology and risk factors for all medical personnel.