Impact of Urinary Catheter Fixation on Meatal Pressure Injury in Male Patients in the Intensive Care Unit

In this study, data were collected by the researcher from the hospital's electronic patient record system and by physical examination. Patients admitted to ICU were divided into two groups as experimental and control. The meatal pressure injury due to urinary catheter was determined by the investigator through physical examination. The first observation was made within the first 24 hours after the patient's admission to the clinic. During the physical examination, the patient's perineum was evaluated in terms of tissue integrity, moisture status, edema, lesions and redness and recorded by ensuring patient privacy. Physical examinations were performed by the researcher twice a day at the same time (08:00-09:00 in the morning and 20:00-21:00 in the evening). The data collection period was considered as 14 days. In case of meatal pressure injury, exitus, transfer of the patient to another unit, or removal of the urinary catheter, the data collection phase was terminated without waiting for the 14-day data collection follow-up period.

The study included 248 patients, 124 in the experimental group and 124 in the control group. Patients were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups according to their sequence numbers. The study was designed as an open-label, randomized and controlled experimental study. A simple computer-assisted randomization method was used to ensure homogeneous group distribution. For this purpose, 248 sets were created using the functions available on the website "https://www.random.org/integer-sets".

The Meatal Pressure Injury Staging System developed by Shenhar (2020) categorizes injuries into four grades:

Grade 1 Meatal Pressure Injury: Erythematous, intact skin and mucosa. Grade 2 Meatal Pressure Injury: Partial loss of thick skin and mucosa. Grade 3 Meatal Pressure Injury: Less than 2 cm loss of full thickness skin and urethral mucosa.

Grade 4 Meatal Pressure Injury: Loss of 2 cm or more of full thickness skin and urethral mucosa.

In the study by Shenhar et al. these parameters were evaluated daily for two weeks. Permission to use the form was obtained from the responsible author.

Inclusion criteria

• Over 18 years of age
• Male patients in intensive care unit for at least 24 hours
• No existing meatal pressure injury
• Patients with urinary catheter on admission to the intensive care unit or urinary catheter inserted after intensive care unit admission

Exclusion criteria

• A skin disease that interferes with the assessment of pressure injury
• Any surgical intervention that prevents the evaluation of the meatal region
• Patients with condom urinary catheter