The impact of urethral catheters on the lower urinary tract microbiota and development of catheter-associated urinary tract infection

This is an observational, longitudinal study on patients requiring a chronic outpatient urethral catheter. We recruited 10 adult male participants with chronic out-patient catheters. Peri-urethral and urethral swabs, urine specimens, internal catheter swabs and catheter tip specimens were collected for 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis. Participants were monitored for development of CAUTI.