Undeflatable Foley Catheter Balloon：Caused by a Jelly Plug？
摘要
Objective: Foley catheters are widely used for urinary diversion. Occasionally we have had the unpleasant experience of difficulty in deflating the catheter balloon, Several methods have been recommended for deflation of a retained Foley catheter, however, there seems to be no definite cause producing this phenomenon. We wondered if the lubricant jelly might be one of the causes for an undeflatable catheter balloon. Materials and Methods: A total of 500 two-way silicon-coated 16-Fr latex Foley catheters with a 10-ml balloon, which were all tested to be easily deflatable, was divided into 3 groups. There were 400 catheters in group I. All orifices of their inflating channels were covered by a thin film of 2%lidocaine jelly (Astra, Japan), and then the balloon was inflated with 7 ml of distilled water. In group II, 70 balloon channels were injected with 1 ml of jelly and then inflated with 7 ml of distilled water. The other 30 catheters which served as the control group (Group III) were inflated with 7ml of distilled water only. All balloons were immersed in normal saline, and were deflated with a 10-ml syringe 7 days later. Results: All balloons in the control group (Group III) deflated smoothly. In group I catheters, 368 deflated smoothly. The remaining 32 catheters were temporarily blocked but deflated after further inflation with 5 ml of distilled water. In group II catheters injected with 1 ml of jelly into the balloon channel, 43 could be deflated smoothly. Temporary undeflation was noted in 27 catheters, but they deflated after irrigation with an additional 5 ml of distilled water. Conclusion: The true cause of undeflatable catheter balloons has still not been identified. However, we suggest that lubricant jelly is not a major cause of undeflatable Foley catheters.