Abstract
Objective: Many individuals with bladder cancer have undergone a surgical urostomy and often complain of being self-conscious of the unpleasant smell of their own urine. The focus of this study was to test the efficacy of a pouch cover made of a carbon and zeolite containing polyester material to inhibit the smell of urine by comparing two trained dogs’ response time in detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, with and without the fabric covering the samples. Methods: This study used a randomized, blinded experimental design to evaluate the efficacy of a fabric to interfere with two highly trained dogs’ ability to detect specific VOCs present in the urine of prostate cancer patient. Ninety urine samples were analyzed in this study. Results: Prior to the experiment, both dogs accurately detected VOCs in the uncovered test urine samples of men with prostate cancer with a sensitivity and specificity of nearly 100%. Both dogs recognized the “uncovered” urine samples of men with prostate cancer within two seconds. When the test sample was covered with the study fabric, the test urine samples were detected within 30-40 seconds and in some instances the dogs were not able to identify the covered samples, whatsoever. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate that the carbon and zeolite containing polyester fabric did significantly interfere with the ability of the dogs to detect VOCs in urine of men with prostate cancer. The fabric may show promise as a pouch cover in controlling offensive urine odor which many ostomates experience.
Highlights
Several patients with advanced bladder cancer, which is ranked ninth worldwide and is the fifth most common type of cancer in Europe (Siegel et al, 2018; Mossanen, 2021; Siegel et al, 2021), undergo a surgical ostomy i.e. urostomy at the time of cystectomy or bladder removal (Goltz et al, 2021; Wulff-Burchfield et al, 2021)
The focus of this study was to test the efficacy of a pouch cover made of a carbon and zeolite containing polyester material to inhibit the smell of urine by comparing two trained dogs’ response time in detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, with and without the fabric covering the samples
Patient with a surgical urostomy can experience a variety of quality of life (QOL) challenges
Summary
Several patients with advanced bladder cancer, which is ranked ninth worldwide and is the fifth most common type of cancer in Europe (Siegel et al, 2018; Mossanen, 2021; Siegel et al, 2021), undergo a surgical ostomy i.e. urostomy at the time of cystectomy or bladder removal (Goltz et al, 2021; Wulff-Burchfield et al, 2021). Patients who have undergone a surgical urostomy often complain of being self-conscious of the smell of their own urine. Many of these individuals undergo chemotherapy, which can result in a common “side-effect” of increased sensitivity to smell often conveyed as unpleasant and may negatively affect quality of life (Zabernigg et al, 2010). Numerous studies have demonstrated the adverse effects of ostomy odor and appliance leakage on ostomates’ quality of life (Gooszen et al, 2000; Mitchell et al, 2007; Grant et al, 2011; Furukawa et al, 2013; Ratliff, 2014). Mitchell et al, (2007) reported a high level of embarrassment associated with leakage from appliances, gas, odors and noise from ostomies (ileostomy, colostomy)
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