A Comparative Study of Catheter-tip Culture with Foley Catheters of Different Materials

Kim, Yong Kil; Woo, Tae Hyung

Abstract

In the recent 2 years, we performed 116 Foley catheter-tip(48 cases of latex, 35 cases of 100% silicone, 33 cases of Silastic) cultures from the male patients who did not have lower urinary tract infection before catheterization. The following result were obtained: 1. The overall positive culture rate of rather-tip culture was 35.3%, and the positive culture rate of urine aspirated from proximal catheter wall just before removal of catheter was 20.6%. 2. The most common microorganism was E-coli in 29.3% and followed by Proteus spp. in 14.7%, Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 12.2%, Klebsiella pneumoniae in 9.8%, Staphylococcus aureus in 7.3%, Candida tropical in 7.3% in orders. 3. In comparison with duration of catheterization, the positive culture rates of catheter-tip of 3 different materials removed within one day were similarly low from 0 th 12%. However, the positive culture rate was much increased in latex-tip (70%) than silicone-tip (23%) and Silastic-tip (14.3%) which were removed between 2 to 4 days. More than 5 days of indwelling catheterization, the positive culture rates were latex-tip in 100%, silicone-tip in 47% and Silastic-tip in 57.1%.