What is an intermittent urinary catheter?
Intermittent catheterization (IC) is the insertion and removal of a catheter several times a day to empty the bladder. The purpose of catheterization is to drain urine from a bladder that is not emptying adequately or from a surgically created channel that connects the bladder with the abdominal surface (such as Mitrofanoff continent urinary diversion).
Intermittent catheterization is widely advocated as an effective bladder management strategy for patients with incomplete bladder emptying due to idiopathic or neurogenic detrusor (bladder) dysfunction (NDO).