Small Animal Surgery Resident The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio
Cats and dogs may require urethral catheterization for a variety of conditions. Digital palpation during traditional female urethral catheter placement is unable to be performed comfortably in the small vestibules of cats, small dogs, and puppies. A previous study described a two-catheter technique that was noted to have higher rates of successful catheterization in healthy pets weighing less than ten kilograms. This report describes the preliminary data for a prospective randomized clinical study assessing the success rates of urethral catheterization in female cats and dogs weighing less than ten kilograms requiring urethral catheterization in the clinical setting. An a priori power analysis determined that enrollment of 38 pets was necessary to identify a significant difference between the two techniques. Cats and dogs that required urethral catheterization at the authors’ institution were prospectively enrolled. Catheter placers included veterinarians, veterinary students, and veterinary nurses of various experience levels, who were randomly assigned one of the two techniques to perform. If the first technique was unsuccessful, the catheter placer switched to the alternate technique. Twenty-nine cats and dogs have been enrolled thus far. Eighteen individuals attempted the two-catheter technique as their first attempt and 22 used the traditional method first. Successful catheterization was performed in 28 of 29 pets using the two-catheter (n=18, 62%) and traditional (n=10, 34.5%) techniques, respectively. Urethral catheterization using the two-catheter technique can be successfully performed in the clinical patient by a variety of personnel with higher success rates compared to the traditional method.
