Fluid Drainage Catheter With External Flow Path
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing urinary catheters face challenges in ensuring complete bladder drainage due to inaccurate positioning and encrustation issues, leading to residual urine and premature catheter blockage.
Innovation Solution
The catheter design features a cylindrical wall with external flow paths and recessed drainage eyes that extend through the tube, allowing for complete urine passage without precise positioning and reducing encrustation through a funnel and inflatable balloon configurations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional catheter design with internal flow path is used, then manufacturing is simple, but encrustation blocks the catheter requiring premature replacement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an external flow path on the catheter surface, transitioning from a purely internal flow path to a hybrid design that utilizes the external dimension. This external flow path allows urine to flow along the outer surface of the catheter, separating the main urine flow from the catheter wall and preventing encrustation buildup that would otherwise block the internal lumen.
2Productivity
If catheter eye is positioned to drain bladder completely, then soft tissue gets sucked into the eye causing blocking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the drainage function by providing multiple drainage eyes distributed along the catheter surface rather than relying on a single eye. This segmentation ensures that if one eye becomes blocked by soft tissue, other eyes remain functional, maintaining reliable bladder drainage.
Solution Approach 2:
The external flow path provides an alternative drainage dimension, allowing urine to reach drainage eyes through the external surface rather than requiring precise positioning of eyes within the bladder cavity, reducing the suction effect on soft tissue.
3Productivity
If intermittent catheter is used for complete drainage, then accurate positioning is required which is difficult to ensure
Solution Approach 1:
The external flow path extends along the outer surface of the catheter, creating a larger effective drainage zone. This dimensional extension means that even if the catheter is not precisely positioned, urine can still access the drainage eyes through the external flow path, reducing the need for accurate positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The catheter design provides multiple drainage pathways (internal lumen and external flow path) that work together, making the catheter effective across a wider range of positioning scenarios and reducing sensitivity to positioning accuracy.
Data Source
Figure 1~1A
Figure 2~4
Figure 5
AI summary
A fluid drainage catheter (10) comprises a catheter tube (12) having a proximal (14) and a distal end (16) and a cylindrical wall (18) with a lumen (24) extending generally from the proximal to the distal end to permit the passage of fluid therethrough. The catheter tube is formed such that the proximal end has a closed tip for insertion of the catheter tube into a body cavity and the distal end has an opening for the drainage of from the body cavity through the lumen of the catheter tube. The cylindrical wall has an outer surface with at least one defined external flow path (26) extending generally in a longitudinal direction from a point in proximity to the closed tip to a point distally thereof. With this arrangement, at least one drainage eye (28) is associated with the defined external flow path and extends completely through the catheter tube from the outer surface to the lumen to permit fluid in the flow path to pass through the drainage eye into the lumen.