Catheters

My father in law has a catherter in place for a non functioning bladder he will be on this for the rest of his days, my question is he has no quality of life and wants to remove the catheter. What will happen once the bladder fills and he can't urinate, the bladder will not constrict, hence why the catheter in the first place, so does the bladder fill until it pops and will this cause his death? He has a living will and feels the catheter in place is prolonging his life, any help would be appreciated.

[rmprdl1964]

Hi,

I have had a catheter in for over a year and a half now and it is not as bad as people make it out to be.

Not having a catheter in would cause reflux of urine back up to the kidneys. This could cause infections, damage to the kidneys. If the kidneys are infected and urnine is not drained in some way or form it could become life threatening.

Another option would be a suprapubic catheter, where the catheter is placed into the bladder through the abdominal wall between the belly button and penis.
It would be less uncomfortable then having a catheter in the penis, but there is still some cramping now and than. Not having a catheter in would not be an option, and would be an uncomfortable way to die.

I hope that you will be able to come up with a solution that is acceptable to both parties.

God bless,

Ron

[sparky2call]

There are cases where a male non-functioning bladder diagnoses has been proved wrong by the patient trying a temporary prostate stent. If the bladder truly is not able to generate enough pressure to push the urine out, even a stent will not help, so I don't want to raise your hopes. Still, there have been cases where the doctor thought the man's bladder was non-functioning, but after putting in a stent, the patient was able to urinate. Placement of the stent is the only real way for a man to find out if the bladder might work. The risk of trying the stent is very low versus the difficulties of wearing either s/p or foley or CIC. Just a thought.