Overview
Clinical Frame
An indwelling urinary catheter can relieve retention and permit accurate urine output measurement, but it also creates a surface where organisms can persist.
An indwelling urinary catheter can relieve retention and permit accurate urine-output measurement, but it also creates a surface where organisms can persist. CAUTI is not diagnosed from cloudy urine, an odour, pyuria, or a positive culture alone. In an adult whose catheter has been present for at least 48 hours, the diagnosis requires compatible signs or symptoms, a quantitative culture showing at least 10^5 CFU/mL of a single organism, and exclusion of other infection sources. The highest-yield prevention decision happens before insertion: confirm the indication, then shorten the duration of catheterisation as much as possible.