• Catherine Murphy, Mandy Fader, and Jacqui Prieto.
• Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Electronic address: cm5e08@soton.ac.uk.
• Int J Nurs Stud. 2014 Jan 1;51(1):4-13.

BackgroundIndwelling urinary catheters (IUC) are the primary cause of urinary tract infection in acute care. Current research aimed at reducing the use of IUCs in acute care has focused on the prompt removal of catheters already placed. This paper evaluates attempts to minimise the initial placement of IUCs.ObjectivesTo evaluate systematically the evidence of the effectiveness of interventions to minimise the initial placement of IUCs in adults in acute care.DesignStudies incorporating an intervention to reduce the initial placement of IUCs in an acute care environment in patients aged 18 and over that reported on the incidence of IUC placement were included in the review. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist has been used as a tool to guide the structure of the review.Data SourcesMEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, National Health Service Centre for Review and Dissemination and Cochrane Library.Review MethodsA systematic review to identify and synthesise research reporting on the impact on interventions to minimise the use of IUCs in acute care published up to July 2011.Results2689 studies were scanned for eligibility. Only eight studies were found that reported any change (increase or decrease) in the level of initial placement of IUCs as a result of an intervention in acute care. Of the eight, six had an uncontrolled before-after design. Seven demonstrated a reduction in the initial use of IUCs post-intervention. There was insufficient evidence to support or rule out the effectiveness of interventions due to the small number of studies, limitations in study design and variation in clinical environments. Notably, each study listed the indications considered to be acceptable uses of an IUC and there was substantial variation between the lists of indications.ConclusionsMore work is needed to establish when the initial placement of an IUC is appropriate in order to better understand when IUCs are overused and inform the development of methodologically robust research on the potential of interventions to minimise the initial placement of IUCs.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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