Reducing postoperative catheterisation after anterior colporrhaphy from 48 to 24h: a randomised controlled trial.

Abstract

There is a distinct lack of literature on postoperative management after anterior colporrhaphy (AC). Our traditional postoperative protocol consisted of 24h of indwelling catheterisation followed by 24h of self-intermittent catheterisation. We hypothesised that a new protocol consisting of only 24h of indwelling catheterisation might produce better results without additional complications. From April 2014 to July 2017, all candidates for AC were randomised to catheter removal 24 or 48h after surgery. The primary outcome was the postoperative urinary retention (POUR) rate. Secondary outcomes included: asymptomatic bacteriuria (AB), urinary tract infection (UTI) and postoperative pain after 24h. A total of 79 patients were recruited. Thirty-seven and 40 patients were randomised to follow the 48-h protocol and the 24-h protocol respectively. There were no significant differences in relation to the POUR rate: 3 patients (8.1%) vs 1 (2.5%) in the 48-h vs the 24-h group respectively (p = 0.346). The UTI rate was 2 (8.1%) vs 0 patients respectively (p = 0.139) and the postoperative AB rate was 3 (9.1%) vs 0 patients (p = 0.106). In the postoperative pain evaluation, the visual analogue scale score was significantly higher in the 48h group (0.35 vs 0.13, p = 0.02). According to our results, reducing the catheterisation from 48 to 24h after AC does not increase the risk of POUR and decreases the rate of UTI, AB and postoperative pain. This new postoperative management protocol of pelvic floor surgery would improve postoperative outcomes and shorten the stay in hospital.