How many milliliters does the nurse calculate as urine?
After a retropubic prostatectomy, a client needs continuous bladder irrigation. The client has an I.V. of dextrose 5% in water infusing at 40 ml/hour, and a triple-lumen urinary catheter with normal saline solution infusing at 200 ml/hour. The nurse empties the urinary catheter drainage bag three times during an 8-hour period for a total of 2,780 ml.

Radical retropubic prostatectomy is a process in which the gland is removed. A surgeon will make a cut in the abdomen to remove the prostate. The reason for this process could be because the patient has cancer in the prostate or other important problems with the prostate. In order for the area to not get infected, the area must be continuously cleansed through irrigation.

One area that would be affected would be the bladder. If a patient has undergone retropubic prostatectomy and the nurse is irrigating the bladder, then the nurse will need to change or empty the urinary catheter drainage bag. If she or he has emptied 2,780 milliliters of urine in an eight hour period, then the nurse has calculated 1180 milliliters of urine.

1. 1180-the correct answer is 1180. \r\n \r\nrationale: during 8 hours, 1,600 ml of bladder irrigation has been infused (200 ml 8 hour = 1,600 ml/8 hour). the nurse then subtracts this amount of infused bladder irrigation from the total volume in the drainage bag (2,780 ml 1,600 ml = 1,180 ml) to determine urinary output. \r\n \r\nclient needs category: physiological integrity \r\nclient needs subcategory: basic care and comfort \r\ncognitive level: analysis \r\n \r\nreference: karch, a.m. focus on nursing pharmacology,4th ed. philadelphia: lippincott williams & wilkins, 2007, p. 57.