Hydrophilic Versus Non-Hydrophilic Catheters for Clean Intermittent Catheterization: a Meta-Analysis to Determine Their Capacity in Reducing Urinary Tract Infections

Clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) is associated with an increased risk of urinary tract infections (UTI), urethral trauma, urethral stenosis, hematuria, and pain. The first catheters were developed of polyvinyl carbon (PVC). Several types of catheters have been developed to reduce these complications, such as those with hydrophilic coating. To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of hydrophilic coated catheters compared to uncoated catheters on the rate of UTI in patients using CIC. A systematic literature search was performed in OVID, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and CENTRAL databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or randomized crossover trials comparing UTI and hematuria rates in patients using hydrophilic vs. non-hydrophilic catheters for CIC were identified. The selected trials were evaluated for risk of bias using the “Revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2).” The results were expressed as a risk ratio (RR) with a 95