Foley catheter tip cultures: A valuable diagnostic aid in the immunosuppressed patient

Abstract

Cultures of forty-three Foley catheter tips from immunosuppressed renal transplant patients have been analyzed and correlated with the subsequent development of urinary tract infection. Fifteen cultures produced no growth and two showed only coagulase-negative staphylococci; none of these patients subsequently developed a urinary tract infection. Twenty-four of the cultures showed at least one organism known to be a frequent urinary pathogen; sixteen (67 per cent) of these patients developed a urinary tract infection within ten days of the culture, and all sixteen had an infection caused by an organism present on the Foley tip. None of the organisms were identified by simultaneous catheter specimen urine cultures. Foley tip cultures in the immunosuppressed renal transplant patients are predictive of urinary sepsis and diagnostic of the causative organism.