Abstract

 Bladder scanning is a fast, non-invasive method of detecting the residual volume within the bladder with no risk of infection or trauma. Although highly sensitive, the post void residual volumes reported by bladder scanning is not specific for urine retention; false positive rates of up to 9% have been reported. To increase the awareness of this phenomenon we outline an illustrative case in which a BladderScan (BVI 3000, Verathon, The Netherlands) reported a post void residual volume of 494ml and urethral catheterisation was performed but no urine drained. Bedside abdominal ultrasound eventually demonstrated that the patient had ascites. The BladderScan had misinterpreted this intra-abdominal fluid as urine within the bladder. We therefore recommend that formal diagnostic imaging of the abdomen and pelvis is performed if there is any discrepancy between the urine volume reported by bladder scanning and that measured by urinary catheterization.

Keywords: Ascites; BladderScan; Urine Retention

References

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Citation

Citation: Ram Dhotarkar and Rajkumar Rajendram. “Failure of Urethral Catheterisation to Relieve Urinary Retention Reported by a Bladder Scanner". Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 1.6 (2020): 13-15.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Ram Dhotarkar and Rajkumar Rajendram. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.