In a hospital, many people will be catheterized, which is what happens when a nurse inserts a Foley catheter into a person’s bladder by way of either the urethra or a small surgical hole cut just outside the bladder. Many times, people will be catheterized simply because they are too sick to use the toilet or a bedpan, but sometimes a doctor will use catheterization as a way to track a person’s urine.
There are many different reasons that someone would need to have his urine tracked, but a Foley catheter makes the whole process easy. The catheter runs the urine down a tube into a collection bag, which will have markings on it like a measuring cup so that a doctor can easily see how much urine a person is emitting every hour. Also, these clear bags make for a simple way for doctors and nurses to track the color of urine during a person’s hospital stay, which can be a huge part of a medical diagnosis. Blood in the urine, for instance, signals a major infection in the kidneys.
Sometimes, doctors will track how much urine a person is emitting compared with how much liquid she is taking in. The difference between these two carefully regulated amounts can become a part of a larger process of diagnosis and treatment just like urine color can.
Chances are likely that if the doctors are using a catheter on a patient in a hospital to diagnose a problem by tracking urine, that person already feels badly enough that getting out of bed to use the restroom is a problem. However, you should be aware that catheterization can be used also for simple diagnostic purposes even on people who feel well enough to be up and about. If you have questions about this when you or a loved one is hospitalized, you should not hesitate to ask why a catheter is being used.