Urine drainage bags collect urine. Your bag will attach to a catheter (tube) that is inside your bladder. You may have a catheter and urine drainage bag because you have urinary incontinence (leakage), urinary retention (not being able to urinate), surgery that made a catheter necessary, or another health problem.
Urine will pass through the catheter in your bladder into the leg bag.
Where to place your leg bag:
Always empty your bag in a clean bathroom. Do NOT let the bag or tube openings touch any of the bathroom surfaces (toilet, wall, floor, and others). Empty your bag into the toilet at least two or three times a day, or when it is a third to a half full.
Follow these steps for emptying your bag:
Change your bag once a month. Change it sooner if it smells bad or looks dirty. Follow these steps for changing your bag:
Clean your bedside bag each morning. Clean your leg bag each night before changing to the bedside bag.
Call your doctor or nurse if:
Leg bag
Cochran S. Care of the indwelling urinary catheter: is it evidence? J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs. 2007 May-Jun;34(3):282-8.
Updated by: Jennifer K. Mannheim, ARNP, Medical Staff, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Seattle Children's Hospital; and Louis S. Liou, MD, PhD, Chief of Urology, Cambridge Health Alliance, Visiting Assistant Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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