What is a catheter

A Catheter is a clinical apparatus, an insertion tube made of some flexible material like silicon, latex or Teflon, generally designed for the purpose of intravenous drainage or administration of fluids, gasses, or the felicitation of access by other surgical instruments.  The average Catheter can be readily inserted into a body cavity, vessel or duct, thereby creating the channel for the passage of the conducted element, the process familiar as Catheterization. Catheter being one of the most commonly used clinical devices.

So it is very essential, for the clarity of one’s medical understanding, to know what is catheter.  And in order to understand what is catheter, we need to probe a little into its history. In its early days, the Epidermal Catheter was a plain tube cut out of sterilized industrial compounds like Polyvinyl Chloride or Nylon, referred to as an Indwelling-Catheter when often left inside the body temporarily or permanently. The developing edge of medical science has given the humble catheter of the 1950-s a new dimension, as it is today custom-designed separately for each of its varying functions. Distinct designs of the Catheter are drawn up to allow them to be used in pulmonary, Neo-natal, Vascular, Epidural and Central Nervous System tissues, amongst others. Catheters are designed to serve as aqueducts for thermal, optical and such other artificially inserted medical elements. The three major types of Catheters are Coronary, Renal and Infusion.

The question “what is a catheter” has drawn over the decades increasingly detailed and complex responses , as the very design, purpose and scope of it came to evolve with the advancement of surgical science. The earliest recorded use of an antecedent to the present-day Foley Catheter is documented in 3000 BC. The Egyptians used metal ducts for the purpose of Bladder-Catheterization. The Syrians were known to use hollow-middle reeds to investigate the structure and function of cardiac valves, back into the 400 BC.  The original term for Catheter was ‘Katheter , derived from ‘Kathiemai’, meaning ‘to sit’.  The early Greeks inserted through the Urethra a hollow metal tube into the bladder, in order to artificially empty it; thus the tube came to be known as ‘Katheter’. Conceived by Fredrick E.B Foley, the Foley Catheter came into existence only in the 1930-s.  It is thus the youngest specimen of its kind, which can aid one with an insight to the query of “what is a catheter”r.