Publication:

Spontaneous knotting of infant feeding tube in the urinary bladder

In neonatal intensive care settings and paediatric wards, healthcare providers frequently use infant feeding tubes for urinary bladder catheterization when appropriately sized Foley catheters are unavailable. Though it is a safe procedure, it can lead to a serious problem if the catheter knots spontaneously inside the urinary bladder. This report describes an unusual complication where a 6 French feeding tube became knotted spontaneously within the bladder of a 3-month-old male infant during routine urinary catheterization performed for urine sample collection and output monitoring. The knotted catheter was extracted via percutaneous endoscopic suprapubic cystotomy. The patient had a successful post-operative recovery.