The drawbacks of external female catheters for prone patients

In the hospital administration realm, Infection Prevention is tasked with keeping hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) to a minimum. One of these HAIs is Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs). Typically, CAUTIs are combated by eliminating indwelling catheters on all patients possible and using external female catheters. However, with the emergence of COVID-19, this task has been compounded. The CareDry® Non-Invasive Urinary Management System for women seeks to overcome this challenge and alleviate challenges for hospital staff and their patients.

Widely utilized female external catheters (FECs) require the use of gravity to pull the urine away from the patient, thereby only functioning well when a patient is in a supine (lying on your back) position and remaining relatively still. However, it is more effective for a patient to be in a prone (lying on your stomach) position for patients affected by the coronavirus. Proning is when a patient, particularly one in respiratory distress, lays on their stomach to alleviate the weight and gravitational forces on the lungs, directly affecting the distribution and volume of air in the lungs.

Unfortunately, lying on one’s stomach contraindicates how certain FECs work, requiring them to fight gravity and restricting utilization. No one would be happy about moving a patient with respiratory distress; with urine leaking everywhere so many times, the patient would have to revert to using an indwelling catheter and risk a CAUTI.

Comprised of a moldable wand and a soft foam covering, the CareDry® System can be comfortably utilized in all different orientations with no leaks. The system provides 360° absorption, allowing the patient to lie on their back, side, sitting down, and more importantly for COVID-19 patients, placed from behind once they are in the prone position.

*the CareDry® System is only available for hospital use. If you are in need of a home system, you can find more information here about the PureWick® System