Once in a while, we face difficulty in taking out the foleys catheter. Last week, we encountered difficulty in a five-year-old boy in Pediatric ICU. I had a vague memory of introducing soda bicarb through the side port. Long back when I was a house surgeon I did it in surgery. Till the late eighties, we were puncturing the bladder blindly before the ultrasonogram was not available in govt set up. Now we routinely do USG guided puncturing. Here also we punctured the bladder USG guided and removed it easily.
Few points in this context. This happens more commonly when we instil normal saline instead of sterile water for inflating bladder of foleys catheter. Salt may get crystallized and block the narrow lumen. Clamping at the valve may lead to damage to the valve. Few other techniques we could try in such situations. Cut the side port proximal to the bladder just proximal to the valve and…
