Catheter Care After Robotic Prostate Surgery: From the Ward to the Removal Visit

The first thing many men notice when they wake up is not the incisions. It is the tug. A slim tube runs where nothing has ever run before, a bag hangs on the bed rail, and a nurse is already explaining how to empty it. For a lot of patients, the catheter after robotic prostatectomy turns out to be the part of recovery they think about most, and the part nobody quite prepared them for.

That is a shame, because the catheter is doing something quietly clever. It is holding a freshly stitched joint still while the body knits it back together, the way a splint holds a fractured wrist. Understanding that one job makes almost everything else about the next two weeks less strange.

This explainer walks from the ward to the removal visit: what the tube is for, what normal looks like in the bag, what bladder spasms feel like, and which signs mean you should pick up the phone rather than wait it out.

What is the catheter after robotic prostatectomy actually doing?

A radical prostatectomy removes the whole prostate gland and the seminal vesicles, the small pouches behind it. The prostate sits like a doughnut around the top of the urethra, the tube that carries urine out of the body. Take the doughnut away and you are left with a gap. The surgeon closes that gap by sewing the neck of the bladder directly onto the remaining urethra. That stitched join is called the anastomosis, and it is the single most important thing the catheter protects.

The tube itself is a Foley catheter: a soft silicone or latex line passed through the penis into the bladder and held in place by a small water-filled balloon at its tip. Mayo Clinic and MedlinePlus both describe it as standard after prostatectomy, and it has three jobs.

• It drains urine continuously, so the bladder never fills and pulls on fresh stitches.
• It keeps urine off the suture line, because pooled urine slows healing and can leak into surrounding tissue.
• It acts as an internal splint, keeping the two ends of the channel lined up while scar tissue forms around them.

Notice what is not on that list. You are not catheterized because your bladder has forgotten how to work. In most men it works fine, which is exactly the problem: every normal fill-and-empty cycle would stretch a join that is only hours old. The catheter takes the bladder out of the equation for a fortnight.

In robotic surgery the operation is done through several small incisions with instruments controlled from a console, and Mayo Clinic notes that most people leave hospital within a day or two. The catheter goes home with you, which is why the rest of this article is really about living with it well.

How long do you have to wear a catheter after a prostatectomy?

The honest answer is: about as long as it takes an anastomosis to become watertight, and that varies. Mayo Clinic describes roughly one to two weeks with the catheter in place after prostatectomy. MedlinePlus discharge guidance gives a slightly wider range that can run to around three weeks, depending on the surgeon’s assessment and how the operation went.

Why the spread? Healing of a stitched join happens in stages. In the first few days the tissue edges are held together only by sutures. Over the following week fibroblasts, the cells that lay down scar tissue, build a seal that no longer depends on the thread. Surgeons remove the catheter once they judge that seal strong enough to cope with the pressure of a filling bladder. Some teams confirm this with a cystogram, an X-ray taken while dye fills the bladder, which shows whether any dye leaks at the join. Others rely on the operative picture and remove it on a set day.

A few patterns are worth knowing, without treating any of them as a promise:

• A join the surgeon describes as clean and tension-free is more likely to sit at the shorter end of the range.
• A difficult dissection, a large prostate, prior radiation to the pelvis or a reconstruction of the bladder neck often leads to a longer wait.
• If a cystogram shows a small leak, the usual response is simply to keep the catheter a further week and repeat the test.

None of these is a grade or a verdict on how well you are recovering. A longer catheter time protects the join; it does not mean the surgery went badly. Your team will give you a date, and the reasons behind it are worth asking about.

Who usually has the catheter out earlier, and who is asked to wait

Catheter timing is a clinical judgment rather than a rule, but the factors that push it one way or the other are fairly consistent across surgical guidance from sources like Mayo Clinic and the NHS.

Men who tend toward the shorter end are those with a straightforward operation: a prostate of average size, no previous pelvic surgery or radiotherapy, good tissue quality, and an anastomosis the surgeon was happy with at the time of closing. Early mobility and normal urine drainage in the first days reinforce that confidence.

Men more likely to be asked to wait include:

• Those who had radiotherapy to the prostate before surgery, because irradiated tissue heals more slowly and holds sutures less well.
• Those with a very large gland or a prominent median lobe, where the bladder neck often has to be reshaped before it can be joined.
• Those whose cystogram shows contrast escaping at the join, even a trickle.
• Those who developed a urinary infection or a significant clot problem while the catheter was in.
• Those with diabetes, long-term steroid use or other conditions known to slow wound healing generally.

A separate group sometimes has the opposite conversation. If a catheter falls out or is pulled out accidentally in the first days, the team may replace it, occasionally under X-ray guidance, rather than leave the join unprotected. That is why the instruction to never tug at the tube is repeated so often on the ward.

Whichever group you fall into, the decision rests with the operating surgeon, who saw the join directly. What you can control is the environment around it: hydration, gentle activity, bowel habits and avoiding anything that yanks the line.

The first night on the ward: what a normal catheter bag looks like

Expect the bag to be pink, red, or the color of rosé wine for the first day or so. Blood in the urine, called hematuria, is normal after prostatectomy because the raw surfaces of the bladder neck and urethra ooze for a while. MedlinePlus lists blood-tinged urine as an expected finding in the days after surgery. What nurses watch is the trend: gradually clearing rather than deepening, and urine still flowing rather than stopping.

Small, dark, jelly-like fragments can appear in the tube. These are clots, and a few are ordinary. A clot that blocks the tube is different, and the tell-tale sign is a bag that stops filling while your lower belly grows tight and uncomfortable. Ward staff can flush the catheter to clear it, which is one reason you stay overnight.

The catheter is usually connected to a large bag on a stand. You will be shown how to empty it, how to keep the bag below bladder level so gravity does the draining, and how to walk with it. Walking matters more than it sounds. Sitting still after pelvic surgery raises the risk of deep vein thrombosis, a clot in a leg vein, and early movement is one of the standard protections along with compression stockings and, in many units, an anticoagulant injection whose use and timing are decided by the surgical team.

Some men notice a sudden urge to urinate even though the catheter is draining. That is the bladder reacting to the balloon, and it is the first hint of the spasms discussed later. Mention it to the nurse; there are ways to ease it, and knowing it is normal removes most of the alarm.

Going home with a catheter: the daily routine that keeps trouble away

Home care is less about technique than about consistency. The NHS urinary catheter guidance and the MedlinePlus indwelling catheter instructions agree on a small set of habits that reduce infection and blockage.

Wash your hands before and after touching any part of the system. Clean the skin where the tube enters the penis once or twice a day with plain warm water and mild soap, wiping away from the body, and let it dry. Do not use antiseptic creams or powders unless your team asks you to; they irritate more than they protect.

Keep the tube straight and secured. A leg strap or adhesive fixation device holds the catheter to the thigh so that a bag swinging while you walk does not drag on the balloon inside the bladder. That drag is a common cause of both pain and blood in the bag. Check the line for kinks whenever you sit or lie down, particularly under bedclothes.

Most services give you two bags: a smaller leg bag for daytime under trousers and a larger night bag that connects to the leg bag’s outlet so the system stays closed overnight. Empty the leg bag when it is two-thirds full, into a toilet, using the tap at the bottom, without letting the tap touch the bowl. Change bags on the schedule your team gives you rather than washing and reusing them beyond that.

Drink normally. Unless you have been told to restrict fluids for another medical reason, the aim is pale yellow urine, which keeps the tube flowing and dilutes any blood. Alcohol and large amounts of caffeine tend to irritate the bladder lining and are usually easier to leave until the catheter is out.

Bladder spasms with a catheter: why they happen and what helps

Bladder spasms are the symptom men most often say caught them off guard. A spasm is a sudden, involuntary squeeze of the detrusor, the muscle that forms the bladder wall. With a catheter in place, the bladder senses the balloon as a foreign object sitting on its most sensitive spot, the trigone near the outlet, and contracts to try to expel it. Cleveland Clinic and the NHS both list spasms as a common, expected side effect of an indwelling catheter.

What they feel like: a cramping wave low in the abdomen, an intense urge to urinate, and sometimes a squirt of urine around the outside of the tube. The squirt happens because the bladder contracts hard enough to push urine past the balloon and down the urethra, a phenomenon nurses call bypassing. A spasm may also push a little blood into the bag. Each episode usually lasts seconds to a minute or two and then eases.

Things that reliably make spasms worse include a kinked or blocked tube, a full bowel pressing on the bladder, constipation and straining, and the bag being pulled when you move. Fixing those is the first line, and it costs nothing.

Where spasms remain frequent, surgeons sometimes prescribe an anticholinergic or a beta-3 agonist, two classes of medicine that relax the bladder muscle by dampening the nerve signals that trigger contraction. Whether one is appropriate, and for how long, is a decision for the prescribing clinician; they carry side effects such as dry mouth and constipation that have to be weighed against the benefit. If you were sent home with one, take it exactly as prescribed and raise any problems with the team rather than adjusting it yourself.

Leakage, clots and cloudy urine: what looks alarming but usually is not

A catheter gives you a live view of your bladder’s contents for two weeks, and most men have never seen that before. Several things look worse than they are.

Urine leaking around the catheter, as described above, is usually a spasm rather than a sign the tube has failed. If the bag is still filling, the system is working. If leakage comes with a bag that has stopped and a tight lower belly, the tube may be blocked, which is a call-the-team situation.

Blood that had faded and then returns after a walk, a bowel movement or a bumped bag is common. The raw bladder neck bleeds when jostled, and the balloon rubbing against it is the usual culprit. Drink a little more, rest for an hour, and watch the trend. Urine that stays bright red, or thickens with clots the bag struggles to pass, needs advice the same day.

Cloudy urine with sediment often reflects mucus and cells shed by the healing lining, plus the bladder’s normal reaction to a foreign body. On its own it is not an infection. The NHS notes that catheters commonly carry bacteria without causing illness, and treating urine appearance alone is not usual practice. Fever, shaking chills, new flank pain, or feeling suddenly unwell change the picture entirely.

Small amounts of blood or discharge at the tip of the penis, where the tube enters, are also common. Gentle cleaning is enough. Pain at the tip that builds steadily, or the tube visibly slipping in and out, is worth a phone call, because the balloon may have shifted.

The rule of thumb nurses teach is simple: watch the direction of travel over hours, not the snapshot.

Bowels, walking and clot prevention: the recovery jobs around the catheter

Three things happening elsewhere in the body have a direct bearing on how the catheter behaves.

The first is your bowel. Anesthesia, reduced activity and opioid painkillers all slow the gut, and constipation is one of the most common early complaints after prostatectomy. A loaded rectum sits directly behind the bladder and prostate bed, pressing on the new join and provoking spasms. Straining on the toilet raises pressure in the pelvis in exactly the way surgeons want to avoid. MedlinePlus discharge guidance recommends fluids, fiber and gentle activity, and many teams add a stool softener; if yours has, use it as directed. Avoid enemas or anything inserted rectally unless your surgeon has specifically approved it.

The second is movement. Short, frequent walks around the house from the first day home keep blood moving in the legs, help the gut wake up, and reduce the stiffness that makes the catheter feel worse. Lifting anything heavier than a light shopping bag, cycling, and vigorous exercise are usually off the table until after the catheter is out and often for several weeks beyond, because abdominal strain loads the join. Your team will give you their own thresholds.

The third is clot prevention. Pelvic surgery for cancer carries a recognized risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Walking, calf exercises when sitting, staying hydrated and any stockings or injections you were prescribed are the standard toolkit. A calf that becomes swollen, warm or painful on one side, or any new breathlessness or chest pain, is an emergency regardless of how the catheter is behaving.

Sit on a soft surface rather than a hard chair when you can. Pressure on the perineum, the area between the scrotum and anus, presses on the healing urethra and is a frequent, avoidable cause of discomfort.

From the ward to the removal visit: a typical timeline

Every recovery differs, and the table below is a description of what many men experience rather than a schedule to hold your own body to. The timeframes draw on Mayo Clinic and MedlinePlus descriptions of prostatectomy recovery.

Stage	What commonly happens	What you are usually asked to do
Day of surgery to discharge (often 1–2 days)	Pink or red urine, mild spasms, abdominal bloating from gas used during robotic surgery	Walk with support, learn bag emptying, practice catheter hygiene
First week at home	Urine clears toward yellow, spasms ease, bowels return, incision soreness settles	Daily cleaning, leg and night bags, fluids, short walks, no lifting
Second week	Occasional blood after activity, catheter feels less intrusive, energy returns	Continue routine, watch for fever or blockage, confirm removal appointment
Removal visit (typically 1–2 weeks, sometimes to 3)	Balloon deflated, tube slides out in seconds, sometimes after a cystogram	Attend with a pad; some clinics ask you to pass urine before leaving
Days after removal	Burning, urgency and leakage common; both usually improve over days to weeks	Pelvic floor exercises as taught, pads, fluids, avoid bladder irritants

Two points about the table deserve emphasis. The catheter removal date is set by your surgeon and may move; a change is not a setback. And the leakage row is not a footnote. Most men leak after the catheter comes out, and Mayo Clinic describes control returning over weeks to months rather than days. Knowing that in advance makes the first pad far less discouraging.

Catheter removal after prostatectomy: what happens at the visit

The appointment is usually shorter than people expect. If your team uses a cystogram, that comes first: a small amount of contrast dye is run into the bladder through the catheter and X-rays are taken to see whether any escapes at the join. If the pictures are clean, the catheter is removed the same visit. If not, it stays, and the test is repeated after roughly another week.

Removal itself is done by a nurse or clinician. A syringe is attached to the side port to draw the water out of the balloon, and the tube is drawn out steadily. Most men describe a brief, odd pulling sensation lasting a few seconds rather than pain. Bring a pad and dark trousers; a little leakage as the tube comes out is common.

What happens next varies by unit. Some ask you to drink and then pass urine before leaving, a trial of void, to confirm the channel is open. Others send you home with instructions to phone if you have not passed urine within a few hours. Either way, you will be given a plan for what to do if you cannot urinate, because a small number of men develop retention, an inability to empty, from swelling at the join. That is not dangerous if dealt with promptly, and the treatment is usually a fresh catheter for a few more days.

You may also be shown pelvic floor exercises if you were not taught them before surgery, and given advice about pads. Ask what your team wants to hear about in the first week, and how to reach them. Leaving the clinic with a phone number is at least as important as leaving without the tube.

Is it painful to urinate after catheter removal, and how long does the bladder take to settle?

Passing urine for the first time after two weeks of a tube is frequently described as stinging or burning. The urethra has been splinted open and is a little inflamed; the first few streams pass over a surface that is sensitive in the same way a scraped knee is sensitive to water. For most men this burning eases over a few days as the lining recovers, according to MedlinePlus and NHS catheter guidance. Burning that worsens, comes with fever, or is joined by an inability to pass urine at all is a different matter and needs a same-day call.

The bladder itself has spent a fortnight held empty, and it needs time to relearn holding. Expect urgency, frequency and small volumes in the first days, with a gradual increase in how much you can hold. Nighttime trips to the toilet are common early on. A cautious way to help is to drink steadily through the day, taper in the evening, and avoid caffeine, alcohol and fizzy drinks, which irritate the lining.

Leakage on standing, coughing or laughing is stress incontinence, and it is the norm rather than the exception at this stage. The internal sphincter that used to sit within the prostate is gone, and the remaining external sphincter and pelvic floor muscles have to take over. Mayo Clinic describes control improving over weeks to months, with some men taking longer.

The urethra’s structural healing runs on a different clock from the symptoms. The join is usually considered stable by the time the catheter comes out, but the tissue continues to remodel for months, which is why heavy lifting restrictions often extend well past removal. Rarely, scar tissue tightens the join into a stricture, a narrowing that slows the stream; a stream that thins noticeably in the following months is worth reporting.

Urethra healing after prostatectomy: what the pelvic floor has to do with it

Two structures do most of the work after the catheter is gone. One is the healed anastomosis, which you cannot influence directly beyond avoiding strain. The other is the pelvic floor, a hammock of muscle running from the pubic bone to the tailbone that supports the bladder and squeezes the urethra shut. You can train that.

Pelvic floor exercises, sometimes called Kegel exercises after the physician who described them, involve tightening the muscles you would use to stop passing wind and urine at once, holding for a few seconds, then relaxing fully. The NHS and Mayo Clinic both recommend them after prostatectomy, and many units teach them before surgery so the pattern is familiar. The technique matters more than the number: the buttocks, thighs and abdomen should stay relaxed, and the relaxation between squeezes is as important as the squeeze.

Do not do them while the catheter is in unless your team has said so; contracting around a balloon can provoke spasms and bleeding. Once it is out, a common approach is short sets several times a day, building toward holding for longer. A specialist pelvic health physiotherapist can check the technique, and asking for a referral is reasonable if progress stalls.

Erectile function is the other half of recovery men worry about, and it travels on its own timeline linked to how much of the nerve tissue alongside the prostate could be preserved. That conversation belongs with your surgeon, and it is separate from catheter care, but it is worth knowing that penile rehabilitation programs exist and are usually discussed at follow-up visits rather than the removal appointment.

Patience is the honest advice here. The structures are healing; the exercises give the muscles a head start on a job they have never had to do alone.

What people often get wrong about the catheter after robotic prostatectomy

A handful of beliefs come up so often on wards and in follow-up clinics that they deserve direct correction.

“The sooner the catheter is out, the better the surgery went.” Catheter duration reflects the surgeon’s assessment of the join and your individual risk factors, not the quality of the cancer operation. A man kept for three weeks after prior radiotherapy has had cautious care, not worse care.

“Cloudy urine means I have an infection and need antibiotics.” Bacteria commonly colonize catheters without causing illness, and NHS guidance is clear that appearance alone is not treated. Fever, chills, flank pain and feeling unwell are what change management.

“I should drink less so the bag fills slower and I leak less.” Concentrated urine irritates the bladder, encourages clots and raises infection risk. Normal, steady fluid intake is the standard advice from MedlinePlus catheter guidance.

“Pelvic floor exercises should start immediately.” Most teams ask you to wait until the catheter is out, because squeezing around the balloon can trigger spasms and bleeding.

“If urine leaks around the tube, the catheter has failed.” Bypassing is nearly always a spasm. Failure looks like a bag that has stopped filling with a tight, painful belly.

“Leaking after removal means the surgery damaged me.” Stress incontinence early on is expected because the internal sphincter is removed with the prostate. Mayo Clinic describes recovery of control over weeks to months, and the early weeks are not the verdict.

“I can manage the tube myself if it comes out.” Never try to reinsert a catheter at home. Cover the area, note the time, and call the team; the join needs protecting and reinsertion may need imaging.

Questions to ask your care team before you leave the ward

The best time to gather answers is before discharge, while the people who did the operation are within reach. Write these down or photograph the list.

• What date is my catheter due out, and what would make you move it earlier or later?
• Will I have a cystogram first, and what happens if it shows a leak?
• Who do I call, at what number, if the bag stops filling or the tube falls out, including overnight and at weekends?
• How much blood in the bag is too much, in your view?
• Have I been prescribed anything for spasms or constipation, and how long do you expect me to need it?
• Am I on any clot-prevention treatment, and for how long?
• When can I lift, drive, return to work and resume exercise, and does that change after the catheter is out?
• Should I start pelvic floor exercises now or after removal, and can I be referred to a pelvic health physiotherapist?
• What should I bring to the removal visit, and will I be asked to pass urine before I leave?
• What is the plan if I cannot urinate in the hours after removal?
• When is my first follow-up for pathology results, and will that be in person?

Two more are worth adding for yourself. Ask what the team considers a good sign in the first week, so you know what to look for rather than only what to fear. And ask how they prefer to be updated: some units run nurse-led phone lines that welcome early, minor questions, and using them tends to prevent late, major ones.

None of these questions is a challenge to your surgeon. Teams that do this operation regularly expect them, and a patient who understands the plan is easier to look after.

When to call your doctor: red-flag signs with a catheter in or just out

Most catheter problems are nuisances. A few need prompt attention because they signal blockage, bleeding, infection or a clot elsewhere in the body. Contact your surgical team the same day, or use the emergency number you were given, for any of the following.

• The bag has stopped filling for two hours or more while your lower abdomen feels full, tight or painful. This suggests a blocked tube.
• Urine that is bright red and not clearing, or clots that the tube struggles to pass.
• A temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) or higher, shaking chills, or feeling suddenly and markedly unwell, which can indicate a urinary or wound infection.
• The catheter has fallen out or been pulled out. Do not attempt to replace it.
• Increasing pain, redness, swelling or discharge at any incision, or an incision that opens.
• New, severe abdominal pain, especially with bloating and vomiting.
• One calf that is swollen, warm or painful, or any sudden breathlessness, chest pain or coughing up blood. Call emergency services for these; they can indicate a blood clot in the leg or lung.
• After removal: no urine passed within a few hours despite drinking, with a growing sense of fullness, which suggests retention.
• After removal: burning that worsens over days rather than improves, or a stream that becomes progressively thinner over the following weeks.

A brief note on judgment. Nurses running post-operative phone lines would far rather hear about a symptom that turns out to be nothing than miss one that mattered. If something has changed and you cannot explain why, that alone is reason enough to call. The final decision on any change to your care, including whether a catheter is replaced, an infection is treated or a medicine is adjusted, rests with the team that operated on you.

Frequently asked questions

How long do you have to wear a catheter after a prostatectomy?

Typically about one to two weeks, according to Mayo Clinic, with MedlinePlus noting that some surgeons keep it up to around three weeks. The length depends on how the join between bladder and urethra looked at the end of the operation, whether you had prior pelvic radiotherapy, and sometimes on a cystogram X-ray that checks for leaks before removal. Your surgeon sets the date and may adjust it.

How long does it take for the urethra to heal after a prostatectomy?

The stitched join is usually considered strong enough for catheter removal within one to three weeks, but the tissue keeps remodeling for months afterward. That longer phase is why lifting restrictions often extend well beyond the removal visit. Rarely, scar tissue narrows the join into a stricture; a urinary stream that becomes noticeably thinner over the following months should be reported to your team.

Is it painful to urinate after removing a catheter?

Burning or stinging with the first few streams is common because the urethral lining is inflamed after two weeks of splinting. For most men it eases over a few days. Pain that worsens, is accompanied by fever, or comes with an inability to pass urine at all is different and needs a same-day call to your surgical team rather than waiting for it to settle.

How long does it take for the bladder to settle after catheter removal?

Urgency, frequency and small volumes usually improve over days to a few weeks as the bladder relearns holding. Stress leakage on coughing or standing runs on a longer clock; Mayo Clinic describes urinary control returning over weeks to months as the pelvic floor and external sphincter take over. Steady daytime fluids, avoiding caffeine and alcohol, and pelvic floor exercises support the process.

Why do I get bladder spasms with a catheter, and what helps?

The bladder senses the catheter balloon as a foreign body and contracts to expel it, causing cramping, sudden urgency and sometimes a squirt of urine around the tube. Kinked tubing, constipation and a bag tugging on the line make spasms worse, so fixing those comes first. Where spasms remain troublesome, clinicians may prescribe a bladder-relaxing medicine; whether and for how long is their decision.

What happens at catheter removal after prostatectomy?

Some units first run a cystogram, an X-ray with dye in the bladder, to confirm the join is sealed. The balloon is then deflated with a syringe and the tube drawn out, which takes seconds and usually feels like a brief pull. Many clinics ask you to pass urine before leaving. Bring a pad, and make sure you leave with a plan for what to do if you cannot urinate.

Is blood in the catheter bag normal?

Pink or red urine is expected in the first day or two and often reappears briefly after walking, a bowel movement or the bag being jostled, because the raw bladder neck bleeds when the balloon rubs it. Urine that stays bright red, thickens with clots, or coincides with the bag stopping needs same-day advice from your team.

What should I do if my catheter falls out at home?

Do not try to reinsert it. Cover the area with a clean pad, note the time, and phone the surgical team or the emergency number you were given straight away. The join between bladder and urethra still needs protecting in the early weeks, and replacement may need to be done by a clinician, sometimes with X-ray guidance to avoid disturbing the stitches.

Can I shower with a catheter after prostate surgery?

Usually yes, once your team has cleared the incisions for water, and showering is in fact the easiest way to keep the catheter entry site clean. Leave the bag attached, keep it below bladder level, pat everything dry afterward and check for kinks when you redress. Baths and swimming are generally asked to wait until the catheter is out and wounds have closed.

Should I start pelvic floor exercises while the catheter is still in?

Most teams ask you to wait until the catheter is removed, because squeezing the pelvic floor around the balloon can trigger spasms and bleeding. Once it is out, the NHS and Mayo Clinic recommend regular pelvic floor exercises to support urinary control, focusing on correct technique and full relaxation between squeezes. A pelvic health physiotherapist can check your technique if progress stalls.

References

• MedlinePlus: Radical prostatectomy
• MedlinePlus: Radical prostatectomy: discharge
• MedlinePlus: Indwelling catheter care
• NHS: Urinary catheters

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a qualified doctor about your individual situation.