A Word about Word Catheters

Treating Bartholin’s gland abscesses by incision and drainage using a Word catheter seems pretty simple and straightforward. Buford Word, MD, a gynecologist, first described his invention in 1964. (1) The basic premise is to place a mini-Foley catheter balloon into the abscess, and the balloon foreign body prevents closure with the subsequent formation of an epithelial fistula. Ideally, it remains in place for four to six weeks. Patient satisfaction and the success rate is excellent in comparison with a simple incision and drainage or marsupialization. (2, 3) The apparent simplicity is a little deceiving, and some of the associated technical challenges will catch the unsuspecting emergency medicine intern by surprise. Our experiences with two different patients in the past month renewed my respect for the technical aspects of this procedure. In fact, we failed with the first patient, and the catheter malfunctioned with the second patient. This month’s video demonstrates that patient experience nicely, and some of the challenges and pearls for success are presented.   All of the emergency medicine textbooks do an excellent job describing the procedure for Word catheter placement. A number of excellent review articles on Bartholin’s gland disease management are also available. (3-8) This blog presents additional important pearls for success that are not typically found in textbooks and review articles.     M2E Too! Pearls on Word Catheters Not all Bartholin’s gland ...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs