Clean intermittent catheterization for spinal cord injury patients.

Charts were reviewed retrospectively for 65 patients with traumatic spinal cord injury discharged from the hospital between 1972 and 1977 on clean intermittent catheterization for management of neurogenic bladders. While 54 patients were still using clean intermittent catheterization 9 had discontinued its use and 2 were lost to followup. Complete urologic followup records were available for 28 long-term clean intermittent catheterization users, with an average followup of 3.7 years. Complications seen in this group included nephrolithiasis-3 cases, cystolithiasis--3, epididymitis--4 and urinary tract infection--12. No patient had hydronephrosis or radiographic pyelonephritis. Clean intermittent catheterization appears to be a safe and satisfactory alternative for long-term management of the neurogenic bladder of selected spinal cord injury patients, since the incidence of serious renal complications is low. Factors that should be considered before long-term clean intermittent catheterization is recommended include type of neurogenic bladder, prognosis for recovery, incontinence despite medication, history of urethral trauma, host resistance, physical independence in self-catheterization, compliance and patient preference.