How much do you know about catheters?

A catheter is a Class II medical machine, a tube inserted into the bladder by the urethra in order to drain urine, mainly used for patients with urinary retention or bladder outlet obstruction, urinary incontinence, patients requiring prolonged bed rest or forced position, and patients in the perioperative period of surgical procedures. Catheters are usually divided into 13 models with specifications ranging from 6F to 30F according to the circumference of the outer diameter, and four models of 12F, 14F, 16F and 18F are commonly used for adults.

Material of catheter

Catheters are mainly made of polyvinyl chloride, silicone, latex, etc. The catheters made of different materials have different characteristics:

• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC): the product is harder, more irritating, strong foreign body sensation and inexpensive, This product is mostly without balloons and poorly biocompatible, prone to adhesions, and can be left only for a short time.

• Rubber: the product is softer, more irritating, uncomfortable for patients, and easy to cause the inflammation of mucous membrane of the urethra. It also easy to calcium, but inexpensive and mostly without balloons.

• Silicone: the product is soft, almost non-irritating, biocompatible and no foreign body feeling for patients. The wide inner diameter of silicone catheter is suitable for medium and long-term indwelling catheterization, which can avoid multiple intubations, reduce friction with the urethra, alleviate the patient's pain and reduce the occurrence of urinary tract infection. However, the surface during forming process is not easy to keep smooth. It has high cost, mostly without balloons.

• Latex: the product is soft, biocompatible and comfortable for patients. It has highly smooth surface, very little irritation and suitable price, most with balloons, which is convenient for indwelling catheterization and can be left in the short term. But the soft texture of latex catheter makes it difficult to insert smoothly into the bladder, and it is easy to sink calcium blockage and has cytotoxic reactions.

Classification of lumen

• Single-lumen catheter: it has only one channel, is usually without balloons, not easy to fix, and can be left only for a short time. It need to be fixed by tapes when using.

• Double-lumen catheter: it has two lumen, injection lumen and liquid outlet, which is simple to fix, secure and not easy to contaminate. It is commonly used in  indwelling catheterization.

• Three-lumen catheter: there are three lumen- water injection lumen, drainage lumen and drug injection lumen, which are mainly used for short-term indwelling catheterization, intravesical drug drip, flushing and drainage.

• Four-lumen catheter with double balloons: the catheter is equipped with two balloons：a positioning balloon at the front blocks the bladder neck; A closing balloon is set at the rear to close the urethra and form a closed cavity to achieve local drug treatment. The two lumen outside the balloon allow for continuous bladder irrigation. It is more clinically valuable than a three-lumen catheter with double balloons.

Innovation of production process

With constant development of production technology, catheter has experienced transformation from traditional production, modern production, to full automatic production. Nowadays, more and more automatic equipment and precision equipment are applied to the production of catheters. Automatic production not only lowers the cost of production and enhances technology level, but also improves the product quality, increase capacity, and accelerates the development of the industry.

HANGHINGLI automatic PVC catheter assembly equipment can automate the whole production process: automatic feeding materials and discharging the finished products, welding catheter tips, assembling connectors and testing the finished products, with 99% yield rate. Its high compatibility allows it to customize the product sizes and lengths according to demands. What’s more, quantitative dispensing process can make the product more beautiful and strong; High-frequency welding head allows for sleeker catheter tips formation.

(Automatic assembly machine for urethral cathetert)

To meet different production needs, HANGHINGLI silicone catheter balloons assembly machine can accurately assembly the balloons and use heat-shrinkable tube to heat and shape, so that the slop of the tube is smoother and effectively improve the comfort of the product. In addition, the glue spraying is precise and uniform, and after the balloon expansion, it can ensure the concentricity of the catheter body and balloon is consistent, which effectively ensures the quality of the product and promotes the production process of the catheter to keep up with times.

(Automatic assembly machine for silicon foley balloon catheter)