Effect of early removal of urinary catheter on recovery after vaginal surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Prolonged retention of urinary catheters (UC) after vaginal surgery is a common practice aimed at preventing postoperative urinary retention and enhancing the success rate of surgery. However, this approach also increases the chance of urinary tract infection (UTI), prolongs hospital stay (LOS), and delays recovery. Balancing these considerations, we investigated the effect of the timing of UC removal. We conducted a comprehensive literature search using four databases to identify all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving patients who underwent transvaginal surgery and had UC removal within 7 days postsurgery. This systematic review was conducted by two reviewers independently following the PRISMA guideline. This study investigated the timing of catheter removal in relation to the incidence of urinary retention, UTI, and LOS. A total of 8 RCT studies, involving 952 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Six studies revealed no significant difference in the urinary retention rate between early catheter removal group (24 h) and delayed removal group (>48 h, P = 0.21), but exhibited a significantly reduced UTI rate (P