Acute bladder and small bowel perforation as a complication of Foley catheterization

Abstract

The complications of chronic urethral catheterization are well documented in the medical published data. Chronic urethral catheterization has been demonstrated to cause inflammatory changes within the bladder wall, promoting perforation and small bowel fistualization. In this report, we document the clinical course of a patient who presented with acute perforation of the bladder and small bowel as a result of Foley catheterization. To our knowledge, this is the first documented acute perforation of the bladder and the small bowel during Foley catheterization.