To Cath or not to Cath, that is the question….Obtaining midstream urine collection in infants is fraught with challenges for healthcare providers. There now appears to be a method to create clean catch urine samples without any invasive techniques utilized at all?
In the Quick-Wee method 354 infants (aged 1-12 months) requiring urine sample collection were randomized to either gentle suprapubic cutaneous stimulation (n=174) using gauze soaked in cold fluid (the Quick-Wee method) or standard clean catch urine with no additional stimulation (n=170), for five minutes. The outcome was voiding of urine within five minutes. Secondary outcomes were successful collection of a urine sample, contamination rate, and parental and clinician satisfaction with the method.
The Quick-Wee method resulted in a significantly higher rate of voiding within five minutes compared with standard clean catch urine (31% v 12%, P<0.001), difference in proportions 19% favoring Quick-Wee (95% confidence interval for difference 11% to 28%). Quick-Wee had a higher rate of successful urine sample collection (30% v 9%, P<0.001) and greater parental and clinician satisfaction (median 2 v 3 on a 5 point Likert scale, P<0.001). The difference in contamination between Quick-Wee and standard clean catch urine was not significant (27% v 45%, P=0.29). The number needed to treat was 4.7 (95% confidence interval 3.4 to 7.7) to successfully collect one additional urine sample within five minutes using Quick-Wee compared with standard clean catch urine.
In this study, Quick-Wee is a simple cutaneous stimulation method that significantly increases the five minute voiding and success rate of clean catch urine collection.
In the University Children’s Hospital of Nice (France) study, 142 infants under walking age who required a urine sample from September to November 2014, in the emergency department of the University Children’s Hospital of Nice (France) were studied. A technique based on bladder stimulation and lumbar stimulation maneuvers, with at least two attempts, was tested by four trained physicians.
The success rate and time to obtain urine sample within 3 minutes were evaluated. Discomfort (EVENDOL score ≥4/15) was measured. Midstream clean-catch urine was obtained in 55.6% of infants with a median time of 52.0 s (10.0; 110.0). The success rate decreased with age from 88.9% (newborn) to 28.6% (>1 y) (p = 0.0001) and with weight, from 85.7% (<4kg) to 28.6% (>10kg) (p = 0.0004). The success rate was 60.8% for infants without discomfort (p<0.0001). Heavy weight and discomfort were associated with failure, with adjusted ORs of 1.47 [1.04–2.31] and 6.65 [2.85–15.54], respectively.
The takeaway?
Bladder stimulation seems to be efficient in obtaining midstream urine with a moderate success rate in two studies. These could be an alternative technique for infants before potty training but further randomized multicenter studies are needed to validate this procedure.