Medical catheters are tubes that can be introduced into a body cavity to allow fluids or drugs to be administered, or to drain fluids or urine from the body. Examples of types of medical catheters are intravenous catheters, urinary catheters, and chest drainage tubes.
Urological Applications
The most recognizable are Foley catheters, designed to serve a primary feature in the urinary tract. Urine drains via the catheter right into a bag that may be emptied. It can be used in urine retention, interrupted urine stream, straining on urination, obstructed urethra, or for the tracking of urine output in an acutely unwell person, or after surgery.
Medical catheters can also be used in a medical procedure called percutaneous nephrostomy, in which a catheter is used to drain urine from the kidney.
Cardiovascular Applications
Cardiovascular procedures including angioplasty, angiography, and balloon septostomy all use catheters. A catheter is embedded into a vein and threaded into the coronary heart.
Neurovascular Applications
Innovations in catheters mean that medical catheters can now be used in most parts of a patients body, including the brain. Neurovascular micro catheters are designed for patients with neurovascular issues and complications such as ischemic stroke.
Gastrointestinal Applications
Catheters can be used to empty fluid and pus which is accumulating in cavities, for example they can be used to empty pus from a stomach abscess. High frequency ultrasound medical catheters can be used while performing diagnosis over a guide wire, facilitating diagnosis of the bile and pancreas ducts. These catheters have been advanced so that linear imaging is feasible with subsequent three-dimensional reconstruction.
Drug Administration
Catheters are used for intravenous fluid and drug administration. A fine tube is introduced into the vein to supply fluid or medicine to the patient.
Infusion pumps are linked to catheters to deliver medicines to patients, for instance, to deliver chemotherapy to cancer patients or insulin to diabetic patients.
Medical catheters are used in local anesthesia, including spinal and epidural anesthesia. The catheter supplies anesthetic medicine into the epidural space or the subarachnoid space.
