Intravesicular pressure monitoring does not cause urinary tract infection

Objective To determine whether intravesicular pressure monitoring using a closed system increases the risk of nosocomial urinary tract infection.Design Retrospective chart and database review.Setting Surgical/trauma intensive care units of a regional level-I trauma center.Patients 3108 critically ill patients of which 122 patients underwent intravesicular pressure monitoring.Interventions Severity-adjusted urinary tract infection rates were compared among patients with and without intravesicular pressure monitoring.Measurements and results Over a 24-month period, 122 consecutive patients had 2202 intravesicular pressure measurements performed. During 1448 urinary catheter days, 15 patients who required intravesicular pressure monitoring developed a urinary tract infection with a severity-adjusted device-related infection rate of 7.9 infections per 1000 catheter days. Of the 2986 patients who did not require such monitoring, 98 patients developed a urinary tract infection with an infection rate of 6.5 infections per 1000 catheter days (p = 0.56).Conclusions Intravesicular pressure monitoring using the closed transducer technique is safe and does not increase the risk of urinary tract infection.