Surgery – Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material – Receptacle attached to or inserted within body to receive...
Patent
1995-11-16
1997-08-05
Weiss, John G.
Surgery
Means and methods for collecting body fluids or waste material
Receptacle attached to or inserted within body to receive...
604328, 128761, A61F 544, A61B 500
Patent
active
056537000
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application claims benefit of international application PCT/GB94/01052, filed May 17, 1994.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a device for female transient urinary catheterisation.
Deviation from normal bladder function in a patient can involve problems of urinary retention, whereby the bladder is unable to evacuate urine. This dysfunction can result from a number of different causes, such as congenital defects in the nerve connections to the brain, nerve injuries resulting from trauma to the spinal cord, extensive abdominal surgical operations, infection and various diseases. If the sphincter muscle is too tight or the bladder muscles are too lax the patient may be able to urinate but may be unable to completely empty the bladder during urination.
Patients with urinary retention require catheterisation to enable the bladder to be satisfactorily emptied. In some cases a urine collection bag and an indwelling urethral catheter are used, the catheter forming a passageway from the bladder to the externally-carried collection bag which can regularly be emptied. This arrangement, however, is cumbersome and moreover leaves the patient at increased risk of infection, bacteria being able to grow and track along the catheter from the collection bag or around the catheter along the urethra.
The alternative and more acceptable solution is the insertion of a transient urethral catheter to allow the patient to void in the bathroom when appropriate or on a predetermined time schedule, such as every three to four hours. For women, this intermittent self-catheterisation can be very difficult to carry out, since the patient must be able to locate the urinary meatus accurately in order to insert the catheter into the urethra. With presently available devices the patient accomplishes this with the aid of a separate mirror held at an appropriate angle, inserting the catheter along the urethra (about 3-4 cm) until its end reaches the bladder. The mirror must be held by the patient, the self-catheterisation thus becoming a two-handed operation, or the mirror must be supported in front of the patient in some way in a position whereby the patient has the required view. Additionally the catheter can be difficult to grip and manipulate, being only a thin, flexible plastic tube with a special slippery surface to aid insertion.
Patent Application FR 2 555 903 describes an intermittent catheterisation device comprising a handle and a catheter tube, the handle being used to facilitate the introduction of the catheter tube into the urethra. Once the catheter tube is engaged with the handle their relative positions are fixed except for the limited flexibility permitted by the slight degree of pliancy of the catheter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to obviate the drawbacks of known devices and to provide a medical device to increase the ease with which women can carry out intermittent urinary self-catheterisation.
According to the invention there is provided a device for female transient urinary catheterisation comprising a handle designed for manipulation by a patient and a catheter co-operable with the handle such that the catheter can be inserted into a patient's urethra by manipulation of the handle, the device being provided with a flexion portion to allow the catheter to be positioned in a desired orientation relative to the handle.
With this construction, the handle provides a means of facilitating the insertion of the catheter without need for the patient to grip the catheter itself to insert it into the urethra. The movement allowed by the flexion portion permits the patient to set the device into a position most appropriate for her particular anatomy and for the particular circumstances of use.
In one form of the invention the handle and the catheter are integrally connected in such a way that the two can be folded together by way of the flexion portion. With this construction, the handle and catheter unit can be stored as a flat pack, the catheter being folded ou
REFERENCES:
patent: 3894540 (1975-07-01), Bonner, Jr.
patent: 4889533 (1989-12-01), Beecher
patent: 4986823 (1991-01-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 5045078 (1991-09-01), Asta
patent: 5234409 (1993-08-01), Goldberg et al.
Byrne Philip Owen
Minns Julian Richard
British Technology Group Ltd.
Cho David J.
Weiss John G.
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