Reusable Urinary Catheter Kit with Sterilization Chamber
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Solution Overview
Problem
Reusable urinary catheters face challenges in storage, transport, and sterilization, limiting their widespread acceptance and use compared to disposable catheters.
Innovation Solution
A reusable urinary catheter kit with a housing featuring a disinfecting chamber, a removable sterilization fluid supply, and a waste tank, allowing for easy sterilization and reuse of the catheter, includes a chassis for securing the catheter and a lid for controlling access to the disinfecting chamber.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If reusable urinary catheters are used, then waste reduction is improved, but storage and sterilization complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into separate functional modules: a reusable catheter, a disposable chassis, and a sterilization chamber. The chassis can be removed and replaced independently, allowing the complex sterilization system to be simplified through modular design. This segmentation enables easy sterilization of the catheter while disposing of the chassis, reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs disposable chassis that are discarded after a single use, replacing the need for complex sterilization of the catheter itself. This approach transfers the sterilization burden from the durable catheter to the disposable chassis, simplifying the overall system while maintaining reusability of the catheter and reducing waste.
2Loss of substance
If reusable urinary catheters are used, then environmental impact is improved, but ease of operation decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service through automatic sterilization within the housing chamber and self-contained design. The user simply places the catheter in the chamber, closes the lid, and the sterilization process occurs automatically without requiring external intervention or complex manual procedures, thereby maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the catheter, chassis, and sterilization chamber into an integrated kit that functions as a single unit. This merging eliminates the need for separate sterilization steps and handling procedures, simplifying the user experience while enabling reusable catheter operation.
3Ease of operation
If disposable catheters are used, then ease of operation is maintained, but waste generation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system recovers and reuses the catheter multiple times through automated sterilization, while discarding only the disposable chassis after single use. This approach maintains the simplicity of disposable catheter usage while significantly reducing waste generation by recovering the more valuable and environmentally impactful catheter component.
Solution Approach 2:
The chassis is pre-prepared and pre-packaged with the catheter in a sterile chamber, eliminating the need for users to perform sterilization actions. The preliminary sterilization and packaging actions are performed during manufacturing, maintaining ease of operation for the user while enabling reusable catheter deployment.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The kit facilitates efficient sterilization and reuse of urinary catheters, reducing waste and improving user convenience by providing a controlled environment for disinfection and storage, addressing the challenges associated with reusable catheters.
Implementation Method 1
a reusable urinary catheter removably secured to the chassis... in fluid communication with the disinfecting chamber... The reusable catheter is then sterilized within the housing
Data Source
AI summary
Kits are provided for storing, transporting, and sterilizing reusable urinary catheters. A reusable urinary catheter stored within a housing of the kit may be sterilized between uses using a sterilization fluid or sterilizing light. If the reusable urinary catheter is sterilized using a sterilization fluid, the housing may include a manually actuated or electro-mechanical pump to circulate the sterilization fluid through the housing. The reusable urinary catheter may include a funnel secured to a catheter shaft, with a plurality of lateral openings defined in the funnel, which provide fluid communication between an interior of the funnel and an external surface of the catheter shaft. By allowing fluid communication between the interior of the funnel and the external surface of the catheter shaft, the lateral openings allow for fluid sterilization of both internal and external surfaces of the catheter shaft.