HK1105110B - An external urinary catheter - Google Patents

Description

External urinary catheter

Technical Field

The invention relates to an external urinary catheter comprising a sheath portion and a tip portion, said sheath portion extending between said tip portion and an open end, a layer of adhesive being provided on the inner side of said sheath portion and extending between a first limit and a second limit.

Background

External urinary catheters or catheters (urisheaths) are commonly used to aid male urinary incontinence and in hospitals in connection with treatment and surgery of patients with urinary tract dysfunction. Such external urinary catheters usually comprise a sheath or body part which in mounted state encloses the shaft of the penis, and a tip part which is connected via a hose to a urine collection bag, e.g. fixed to the bed or the leg of the user.

Traditionally, external urinary catheters are delivered in a rolled-up state. In this transfer state, the sheath portion is rolled into a plurality of successive rolls such that the adhesive layer is completely contained in the rolls, thereby allowing packaging and handling of the urinary catheter without the inner side of the sheath portion adhering to the surroundings. To apply the external urinary catheter to the penis, the sheath portion is unrolled slightly until the adhesive layer on the inside of the sheath portion is exposed. In this state, the external urinary catheter is positioned on the penis such that the adhesive layer comes into contact with the skin and the rest of the sheath portion is subsequently unrolled.

When applying an external urinary catheter, it is important to position the external urinary catheter correctly before the adhesive comes into contact with the skin. The initial adhesion of the adhesive is strong and it may be difficult to install the external catheter once again, which has been incorrectly positioned. In some cases, after unsuccessful attempts, the external urinary catheter must even be replaced with a new one.

These difficulties are particularly evident in the case of disabled users who often need help to perform catheter installation. This assistance is costly and is more or less unpleasant for most users since they consider mounting a catheter as a personal thing.

On this background, it is an object of the present invention to provide an external urinary catheter according to the introductory part, which overcomes or at least alleviates the above-mentioned drawbacks.

Disclosure of Invention

The above and other objects of the invention are met by providing an external urinary catheter comprising a sheath portion and a tip portion, said sheath portion extending between said tip portion and an open end, a layer of adhesive being provided on an inner side of said sheath portion and extending between a first limit and a second limit, said sheath portion being adapted to be rolled up into a plurality of consecutive rolls, said external urinary catheter being characterized in that said external urinary catheter comprises at least one indication showing at least the first limit of said layer of adhesive.

The invention is based on the recognition that: it is difficult to detect when the adhesive starts to contact the skin, especially when the sheath portion is rolled up. By adding the indication the start of the adhesive layer, i.e. the first limit, can be detected. This will in turn help the person who is installing the external urinary catheter. The sheath portion can be safely unrolled to the point where the adhesive just contacts the skin. With the external urinary catheter properly positioned, the sheath portion can then be unrolled further to bring the adhesive into contact with the skin.

It will be appreciated that when the sheath portion is rolled up, an unobtrusive identification means such as a release liner (release paper) cannot be used because the release liner will collapse together and be displaced. Furthermore, such a release liner is usually not necessary, since the material of the new urinary catheter, e.g. made of silicone, itself functions as the release liner. Therefore, there is a need to provide an alternative identification for a urinary catheter in which the sheath portion is rolled up.

Furthermore, additional identification is often necessary because the sheath portion is rolled up, and thus the adhesive boundary is often difficult to detect, especially if the sheath portion is transparent or at least partially transparent, the overlapping layers may form a diffuse view of the adhesive layer.

Thus, even for disabled users the mounting of an external urinary catheter according to the invention can be handled without the need for assistance from medical staff. Thus, the user experiences a more comfortable mounting of the catheter, and medical staff may be saved.

In an embodiment of the invention, the identification is a visual identification.

This visibility may be provided by color. This allows the first limit of the adhesive layer to be immediately recognized, and the color can easily be applied during the manufacture of the external urinary catheter, resulting in little or no additional production costs. In one embodiment, the indicia is in the form of colored lines. Alternatively, the indicia may be provided by a layer of colored adhesive.

The choice of at least one marker as a colour has the further advantage that the marker can additionally be used to identify the size of the external urinary catheter if different sizes of external urinary catheters have different marker colours.

Alternatively or additionally, the at least one identifier may be a tactile identifier. This allows even visually impaired users to perform the installation. Preferably, such tactile indication comprises a plurality of circumferential protrusions along said first limit.

Drawings

The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 shows a side view of a first embodiment of an external urinary catheter according to the invention in a rolled-up state;

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the urinary catheter of FIG. 1 in an unrolled state;

fig. 3 shows a side view of a second embodiment of an external urinary catheter according to the invention, corresponding to fig. 2; and

fig. 4 shows a side view of a third embodiment of an external urinary catheter according to the invention, corresponding to fig. 2.

Detailed Description

The structure of an external urinary catheter according to the invention will be described with reference to the first embodiment of fig. 1 and 2. In the second and third embodiments of fig. 3 and 4, respectively, elements having the same or similar functions as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and only the differences from the first embodiment will be described in detail.

The external urinary catheter comprises a soft thin-walled and flexible sheath portion 1 with an open end 2. At the end opposite the open end 2, the sheath portion 1 is connected to or integrally formed with a tip or end portion 3. The sheath portion 1 is intended to be mounted on the penis of a user (not shown) and the tip portion 3 is intended to connect a urinary catheter to a urine bag (also not shown) or the like by means of a hose (not shown).

The sheath portion 1 is made of any suitable material. Advantageously, the sheath portion is somewhat transparent, the term "transparent" being understood such that at least some areas of the penis can be viewed without removing the external urinary catheter.

The tip portion 3 comprises a kink resistant chamber provided by a flexible bellows portion (balloon portion)4 and a tip connector 5. The four annular sections of the bellows-like part 4 can be arbitrarily compressed so that the tip connector 5 can be directed at any angle less than about 90 ° with respect to the longitudinal axis of the external urinary catheter. This prevents blockage of the hose leading to the urine bag and allows the catheter to move independently of the urine bag. In the shown embodiment the tip connector 5 is further provided with a peripheral bead 6.

In order to secure the external urinary catheter to the penis of the user, a part of the inner side of the sheath portion 1 is provided with a layer of a suitable adhesive. The adhesive layer, indicated by 7 in the embodiment of fig. 1 and 2, may for example be provided as a layer or coating of a pressure sensitive adhesive having a relatively high water vapour permeability. The adhesive layer extends between a first limit 7a located in the area near the tip portion 3 and a second limit 7b located in the shown embodiment near the open end 2. However, other degrees of extension of the adhesive layer 7 are of course possible. In the first embodiment, the adhesive layer 7 is nearly transparent, the shading shown in fig. 2 being for reasons of readability only, as the dashed lines indicate the second limit 7 b.

Finally, the external urinary catheter is provided with a marking, the function of which will be described in detail below, in the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 the marking is in the form of a coloured line 8. The coloured line 8 is positioned at the beginning of the adhesive layer 7 such that it substantially coincides with the first limit 7 a. It is also possible to position the coloured line 8 slightly offset with respect to the first limit 7 a.

The urinary catheter is delivered to the user in a rolled condition. In this condition, the sheath portion 1 is rolled on itself in a continuous roll from the open end 2 towards the tip portion 3. In order to prevent the successive windings of the rolled-up sheath portion 1 from sticking together, the outer side is provided with anti-stick properties in a known manner. In this roll-up transfer condition, the adhesive layer 7 is not exposed, i.e. the coloured line 8 and the first limit 7a are positioned within the roll.

When the external urinary catheter is to be mounted to a user, the sheath portion 1 is unrolled slightly until an indication in the form of a coloured line 8 appears and can be seen from the outside or inside of the catheter by the person performing the mounting operation. This slightly unwound condition corresponds in the state of figure 1 to the situation shown in figure 1, according to the exact position of the coloured line 8 with respect to the first limit 7 a. At this point, the external urinary catheter is positioned on the penis of the user. Further unwinding of the sheath portion 1 causes the external urinary catheter to be held in place by the adhesion provided by the contact between the adhesive layer 7 and the skin. Subsequently, the rest of the sheath portion 1 is unrolled until the sheath portion 1 at least partially surrounds the shaft of the penis.

Referring to fig. 3, in a second embodiment, an adhesive layer 17 extends between first and second limits 17a and 17b, corresponding to the first embodiment. However, the indication marking the beginning of the adhesive layer 17, i.e. at least the first limit 17a, is provided by coloring the adhesive layer 17 itself. Such coloring may be carried out in any suitable manner, such as by using a binder that is inherently tinted or adding a separate colorant or pigment.

In the third embodiment shown in fig. 4, the indicia marking the beginning of the adhesive layer 27 extending between the first and second limits 27a and 27b is a tactile indicia. The indicator comprises a plurality of circumferential protrusions 28 along a first limit 27 a.

It is of course possible to combine different markers in one external urinary catheter, e.g. a mainly touchable type of marker may also be visible to some extent, and vice versa. It is also possible to have a marking of a vocable element, for example a snapping sound which is activated when the start of the adhesive layer on the sheath portion is exposed. There may also be multiple identities.

The invention should not be regarded as being limited to the embodiments described above, but various combinations and modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the following claims.

For example, although the invention has been described only in relation to an external urinary catheter for positioning on the penis, it can of course be applied to other products where adhesive contact between the product and the skin is involved. It is clear that the invention can also be applied to surgical gloves, condoms, finger cots, etc.

Claims (6)

1. An external urinary catheter comprising a sheath portion (1) and a tip portion (3), said sheath portion (1) extending between said tip portion (3) and an open end (2), a layer of adhesive (7; 17; 27) being provided on the inside of said sheath portion (1) and extending between a first limit (7 a; 17 a; 27a) and a second limit (7 b; 17 b; 27b), said sheath portion being adapted to be rolled up into a plurality of consecutive rolls, characterized in that said external urinary catheter comprises at least one indication (8; 28), said at least one indication (8; 28) being indicative of at least the first limit (7 a; 17 a; 27a) of said layer of adhesive (7; 17; 27).

2. An external urinary catheter according to claim 1, wherein said at least one marking is a visual marking.

3. An external urinary catheter according to claim 2, wherein said at least one indication is in the form of a coloured line.

4. An external urinary catheter according to claim 2, wherein said at least one indication is provided by a coloured layer of adhesive (17).

5. The external urinary catheter according to claim 1, wherein the at least one marking is a tactile marking.

6. An external urinary catheter according to claim 5, wherein said at least one indication comprises a plurality of circumferential protrusions (28) along said first limit (27 a).