Catheterization of Urinary Bladder before Major Gynaecological Surgery

Between 1979 and 1983, 1,292 cases who underwent major gynaecological operations in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Khyber Hospital, Peshawar, were studied. One group (777 cases) had catheterization of bladder whereas the other group (515 cases) emptied their bladders immediately before anaesthesia and were not catheterized. There was no significant difference in the number of cases of retention of urine and bladder injury between the 2 groups except that in cases of laparotomy there were significantly fewer cases of retention in the non-catheterized patients (P = 0.05).