Evaluation of a Novel Midstream Urine Collection Technique for Infants in the Emergency Department

Urinalysis and urine culture are commonly employed laboratory tests in the Emergency Department (ED), particularly for the purposes of investigating febrile infants in whom bacterial etiologies must be ruled out. The standard of care for obtaining sterile urine specimens in this age group remains transurethral bladder catheterization, an invasive procedure that is painful and has the potential for causing specimen contamination and iatrogenic urinary tract infection (UTI). A recent study by Herreros Fernández et al (2013) described a novel bladder stimulation technique for newborns that facilitates midstream urine collection. The success rate for this procedure was 86.3%. It remains unknown however as to whether this technique is reproducible amongst infants who present to the ED with a potentially greater severity of illness. The primary objective of this study is to determine the success rate of this technique in children ≤ 90 days old in the ED.