Observations on the Reliability and Safety of Bladder Catheterization for Bacteriologic Study of the Urine

THE usual method of culturing urine is to obtain a specimen from the bladder by catheterization and inoculate it in liquid mediums. If growth results, urinary-tract infection may be assumed to be present. The reliability of this procedure seems questionable for two reasons. In the first place, although care is taken to cleanse the area around the urethral meatus before insertion of a sterile catheter, there is no practical, harmless way of destroying bacteria that may lie within the urethral channel. These could be transferred into the bladder during passage of the catheter and could then be the origin of . . .