Bladder Scanning: Preventing Unnecessary Procedures

One of the most common infections in the hospital is a catheter-associated urinary tract infection or commonly known as CAUTI. This infection is caused by germs which enter the body via a urinary catheter, a tube inserted into the urinary tract to drain urine. If patients get affected with it, these infections can lead to serious complications, even death, especially for critically ill patients.
Hence, the role of nurses plays a very important part in preventing this infection to occur. Through the help of a bladder scanner, many patients can now prevent costly and painful procedures, such as unnecessary catheterization and cystoscopy.

What is a Bladder Scanner?

Bladder scanners are revolutionary tools that use technology to noninvasively and accurately evaluate the need for catheterization of the patient. It is a portable, hand-held ultrasound device, which can do an easy and painless scan of the bladder.

All bladder scanners have a transducer or probe and each piece determines the type of procedure your physician will conduct. Basically, a bladder scanner mainly uses high-frequency sound waves which are transmitted through the probe that provides a virtual 3D image of the bladder and the volume of urine retained within the bladder. This data will be documented and registered on a computer for examination and analysis of the physician afterwards. The data also includes images of the internal soft tissues of the bladder and other related organs.

This ultrasound procedure is known as bladder scanning which normally takes only a couple of minutes to complete and does not require the supervision by a sonographer. Most physicians use different medical approaches for diagnostic purposes. This usually varies on the organ that needs scanning. For instance, external organs such as bladders, breast, and muscles require higher frequency application while lower frequencies are applied in assessing deep structures such as the kidneys, and the liver.

Benefits of a Bladder Scanner

Bladder scanning is an innovative medical procedure as it provides painless medical assistance to patients and eliminates the risks associated with an unnecessary medical procedure, such as catheterization. There are several bladder scanners now available in the market consists of a battery-operated LCD display console, an ultrasound probe that scans the patient's bladder, and a pair of rechargeable batteries with a charger.

A bladder scanner is an effective device which is now commonly used by many medical professionals in ascertaining post void residual left in the urinary bladder of the patient. No wonder why this powerful device is considered as a powerful medical tool as aside from providing noninvasive medical assistance, this medical device also provides a cheaper procedure compared to other procedures like cystoscopy and catheterization. In fact, bladder scanning has superseded urethral catheterization as the latter medical procedure has been linked to unnecessary pain and other potential medical risks.

Bladder scanning has so many benefits to offer which include:

• Bladder scanners can provide data about the prostate size, diverticula, stones and large tumors in the bladder.
• Bladder scanners are utilized to identify the main causes of bladder irritability, urinary frequency, and identify bladder distention. It is an effective tool in bladder training, too.
• It is proven to be a powerful device in assisting in an accurate examination of a patient's hydration status.
• Bladder scanners are useful in the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of postoperative urinary retention or commonly known as POUR. It is likewise essential in avoiding catheter-associated urinary tract infections. 

Conclusion

The utilization of ultrasound bladder scanner is not only imperative but necessary in order to prevent the aggravation of bladder illnesses such as urethral stricture, urosepsis, urinary tract infections and bladder dysfunction. This is important to save the patient from excruciating pain, damage to his/her renal structures and most especially, to avoid unnecessary medical care that can only lead to additional medical expenses and may lead to other potential medical risks to the patient.

Indeed, the benefits of bladder scanning cannot be overemphasized and medical experts, as well as patients, should take advantage of these. Many medical suppliers, such as Emech Medical Supplies, sell high-quality bladder scanner that helps medical experts easily gather accurate data of the patient’s bladder status.

This is a guest blog posting