Abstract: Noninvasive Bladder Volume Measurement

Harriet Chan. "Noninvasive Bladder Volume Measurement." Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 25 (October 1993) 5: 309-12.

Objectives:
* To compare the accuracy of bladder volume measurements made with a portable ultrasound machine to measurements made by catheterization, and to determine the inter-observer variability of ultrasound measurements.

Methods:
* For 13 consecutive weeks, all patients admitted to the stroke unit at Royal Perth Hospital, Australia, were enrolled in the study. Patients had urinary retention related to stroke, and required either intermittent or post-void residual catheterization.
* Bladder volume was measured using an inexpensive, portable ultrasound scanning unit. Each patient was subsequently catheterized, and ultrasound and catheterization volumes were compared to determine the accuracy of the ultrasound measurements.
* To assess inter-observer reliability, ultrasound measurements were performed by two different nurses within two minutes prior to catheterization.

Results:
* For ultrasound measurements versus catheterized volumes, the correlation coefficient was 0.983.
* 95% of differences were within ± 2 standard deviation.
* The level of agreement between the measurements obtained by the two different nurses was "good and showed no significant differences."

Conclusions:
* Ultrasound measurement of bladder volume is efficient, safe, and accurate.
* "Used with the bladder management program, [the BladderScan^®] is cost-effective in terms of patient comfort, decreased risks of trauma and iatrogenic infection, equipment cost and nursing time, with a reduction in the number of unnecessary catheterizations."

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