Welcome to the first online resource dedicated to providing health-care professionals, caregivers, and patients evidence-based urologic catheter product selection information. The Urologic Catheter Center will provide in-depth product descriptions, specifications, and a review of the different types of catheters and materials. There are also educational materials for both health-care professionals and patients on techniques and uses of the products. There is up-to-date information on complications and adverse events associated with catheters, along with prevention strategies. This content will be "living" and routinely updated, with educational resources and tools for use in clinical practice.

History

The word “catheter” comes from Greek, meaning “to let or send down.” Catheters were used as early as 3,000 B.C. to relieve painful urinary retention. In those times, many materials were used to form a hollow catheter shape, including straw, rolled up palm leaves, hollow tops of onions, as well as, gold, silver, copper, brass, and lead…

Intermittent

Intermittent catheterization is the insertion and removal of a catheter several times a day to empty the bladder. This type of catheterization is used to drain urine from a bladder that is not emptying adequately or from a surgically created channel that connects the bladder with the abdominal surface…

Indwelling

An indwelling urinary catheter, generally referred to as a “Foley” catheter, is a closed-sterile system with a catheter and retention balloon that is inserted either through the urethra or suprapubically to allow for bladder drainage. Indwelling urethral catheters are used to relieve urinary retention and to manage long-term urinary incontinence (UI)...