Why is a urinary catheter required during surgery

I believe that when you go to the hospital, you have seen that patients undergoing surgery need to have a catheter inserted to urinate, so many people are curious about this. In fact, the insertion of a catheter is just to facilitate the patient's urination, because some patients will have a period of time after surgery when the urinary system is not controlled by the nerves. If a catheter is inserted, the embarrassment of bedwetting can be avoided. Why is a urinary catheter inserted during surgery?

1. Facilitate surgical operation and prevent bladder damage

Typically, pelvic and lower abdominal surgeries require that the patient be catheterized in advance because the bladder may be full during the procedure. When the bladder is full, the surgical field of view will be blocked, affecting the progress of the operation and may even cause bladder damage.

2. Prevent urine retention

Some larger surgeries take a long time to complete, and the patient is under general anesthesia and cannot urinate on their own. Failure to insert a catheter may result in the patient's bladder rupturing during the procedure.

3. Prevent urine from contaminating the operating table

During the operation, the effect of anesthetics will relax the bladder muscles, causing urine to flow out of the bladder involuntarily, which can easily contaminate the operating table.

Generally speaking, if an abdominal surgery affects bladder urination, a catheter will need to be inserted. In this case, spinal surgery is often recommended.

Generally speaking, after spinal or other nerve surgeries, the urinary system will temporarily lose its function, resulting in inability to urinate independently or inability to control urination, and ureteral catheterization will be required.

All surgeries under general anesthesia require a urinary catheter because the anesthesia lasts for a long time or the anesthesia wears off slowly. If the catheter is not inserted, the bladder may be damaged easily.

In addition, for surgeries involving lumbar anesthesia, if the operation is expected to take a long time, a catheter is also required. However, if the operation takes about half an hour, a catheter is not required. In addition, surgeries that have no anesthetic effect on the abdomen, such as brachial plexus anesthesia and local anesthesia, do not require a catheter.