Comparison of Early and Late Removal of the Urinary Catheter After Low Anterior Resection

Urinary catheter is placed before abdominal surgery to increase visualization during the operation, prevent bladder injury and provide perioperative urine output monitoring. It is especially useful in patients who will undergo low anterior resection, with a high risk of nerve damage and consequent urinary retention and bladder dysfunction. Urinary catheter removal time differs between operations. Traditionally, the urinary catheter is kept in place for 7 days because urinary retention occurs in some patients whose urinary catheter is displaced in the early period. As the urinary catheter retention time increases, the risk of urinary tract infection also increases.

According to the current ERAS protocol, it is recommended to remove the urinary catheter 48 hours after the surgery in patients who have undergone colorectal surgery and are treated with epidural pain management. However, the ERAS protocol is not specific to patients who have undergone low anterior resection, which is the main point of our study and includes all patients who have undergone colorectal surgery. Most authors still believe that prolonged retention of the urinary catheter will prevent urinary retention and long-term bladder dysfunction. In a randomized controlled study (published in 1999) that we encountered during our own literature search, early removal of the urinary catheter was associated with increased urinary retention [2]. In recent studies, some authors have associated the early removal of the urinary catheter with increased urinary retention [3], while others claimed the opposite and reported contradictory results [4]. Advances in laparoscopic techniques have made it possible to visualize the hypogastric and pelvic nerves (nerves associated with urinary functions) during surgery. In addition to these developments, dissections on embryonic planes and tumor reduction with neoadjuvant chemotherapy protect these nerves during surgery.