The bacteriuria in long-stay geriatric inpatients with an indwelling catheter.

Long-stay geriatric inpatients with an indwelling urinary catheter are harassed by foul-smelling urine, urine leakage, and frequent catheter blockages. It is reasonable to assume that catheter-induced bacteriuria plays an essential role in the catheter problems of these patients. An attempt to reduce the catheter-induced bacteriuria was made by the introduction of a latex catheter coated with a layer of copper metal. The antibacterial properties of the copper-coated catheters studied were, however, insufficient, probably due to too small amount of copper on the catheter. The copper layer was dissolved from the catheter in a few days. The effective time of copper treatment thus became too short.