Clean Intermittent Catheterization in Boys Using the Lofric Catheter

AbstractPurpose: We compared a recently developed hydrophilic catheter to the standard polyethylene catheter in regard to hematuria, infection and patient satisfaction.Materials and Methods: A hydrophilic LoFric* *Astra Tech, Inc., Molndal, Sweden. or standard Mentor† †Mentor Urology, Santa Barbara, California. catheter was assigned at random to 17 and 16 boys, respectively, who were skilled in intermittent self-catheterization. They were evaluated by weekly urinalysis and a questionnaire.Results: Significantly fewer episodes of microscopic hematuria occurred in the LoFric than Mentor catheter group (9 episodes in 6 subjects versus 19 episodes in 11, p less than 0.05). There were also fewer episodes of bacteriuria in the LoFric group but the difference was not statistically significant. Mean scores plus or minus standard deviation on a visual analogue scale with 0 equal to most and 10 equal to least favorable were LoFric 3.3 plus/minus 2.8 versus Mentor 4.9 plus/minus 2.7 for catheter convenience and 2.7 ...