Society guideline links: Urinary catheters

Introduction — 

This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

International

●World Health Organization (WHO): Recommendation on duration of bladder catheterization after surgical repair of simple obstetric urinary fistula (2018)

Canada

●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't place, or leave in place, urinary catheters without an acceptable indication (such as critical illness, obstruction, palliative care) (updated 2024)

●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't place or leave in place a urinary catheter without reassessment (updated 2021)

●Canadian Urological Association (CUA): Best practice report on catheter use (2020)

●Choosing Wisely Canada: Don't insert an indwelling urinary catheter or leave it in place without daily assessment (updated 2020)

United States

●American Urological Association (AUA): Quality improvement issue brief on indwelling urinary catheter management of the acute patient (2024)

●Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), American Hospital Association (AHA), and The Joint Commission: Strategies to prevent catheter-associated urinary tract infections in acute-care hospitals, 2022 update (published 2023)

●Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN): Catheterization of an ileal or colon conduit stoma – Best practice for clinicians (2012, updated 2018)

●Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) prevention guideline (2009, updated 2017)

●WOCN: Care and management of patients with urinary catheters – A clinical resource guide (2016)

●IDSA: International clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of catheter-associated urinary tract infection in adults (ARCHIVED; published 2010)

Europe

●European Association of Urology (EAU): Guidelines on urological infections (2024)

●European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN): Evidence-based guidelines for best practice in urological health care – Indwelling catheterization in adults: Urethral and suprapubic (2024)

●EAUN: Evidence-based guidelines for best practice in urological health care – Urethral intermittent catheterisation in adults, including urethral intermittent dilatation (2024)

●EAUN: Evidence-based guidelines for best practice in urological health care – Male external catheters in adults: Urinary catheter management – Condom catheter, urinary sheath, penile sheath (2016)

United Kingdom

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Medical technologies guidance on UroShield for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections (2022)

●British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and British Association of Urological Nurses (BAUN): Consensus document for the management of the complications of long-term indwelling catheters (2021)

●Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN): Management of suspected bacterial lower urinary tract infection in adult women – A national clinical guideline (2020)

●NICE: Guideline on urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women – Management (2019)

●NICE: Guideline on urinary tract infection (catheter-associated) – Antimicrobial prescribing (2018)

●Department of Health (DH): epic3 – National evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-associated infections in NHS hospitals in England (2014)

Australia–New Zealand

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Don't use urinary catheters to manage urinary incontinence unless all other appropriate options have proved to be ineffective or to prevent wound infection or skin breakdown (reviewed 2016)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Remove all invasive devices, such as intravascular lines and urinary catheters, as soon as possible (reviewed 2016)

●Australasian Society for Infectious Disease (ASID)/Australian Infection Control Association (AICA): Position statement on preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections in patients (2011)

Japan

●[In English] Japanese Urological Association (JUA): Guidelines for infection control in the urological field, including urinary tract management, revised second edition (2021)

●[In Japanese] JUA: Infection control guideline in urology including urinary tract management, revised second edition (2021)

●[In Japanese] Choosing Wisely Japan: Two medical actions to be careful to prevent nosocomial infections (2016)

●[In Japanese] Choosing Wisely Japan: About urinary tract infections (UTIs) in the elderly (2015)