Catheters and Sitting in Misery

- Image by Compound Eye via Flickr
The word "catheter" actually comes from the ancient Syrian word for "to sit." The Syrians made the first catheters, which were simply reeds. Using these reeds to "sit" inside of bodily orifices like plugs, they were a medical tool which could be used to drain out that which should not be in the body any longer. By inhibiting the body’s ability to close up a wound, and essentially "irrigating" out fluids of some sort, these tubes serve a valuable purpose to medical practice. However, they can also cause a great deal of suffering to those into whom they are inserted. After all, catheters have the potential to be very damaging to the people who have them inside their bodies.
A lot of people essentially go to hospitals to get even sicker than they originally were. And catheters are no exception to this dubious rule. As a catheter is essentially a foreign object sticking out of (and holding open) a human body, it is pretty much a guaranteed breeding ground for bacteria, as well as a highway by which this bacteria may have easy access to that body. It has been speculated that of the tens of thousands of deaths due to the "super bugs" (infectious agents which are highly resistant to antibiotics, which breed like rabbits in a hospital setting), a very large number are due to catheters. In the treatment of urinary catheters, especially, lies the potential for a great deal of infection. It is in direct, constant contact with bodily waste, after all.
But of course, catheters can be useful, and most likely do save some lives due to their intended "drainage and irrigation" functionality. Urinary catheterization is useful in the removal of the aforementioned body waste, and can also drain urine from the kidney by percutaneous nephrostomy. Catheters can also collect fluid, as in cases such as abdominal abscesses. They can also be used in veins, such as during angiograph, balloon sinuplasty, angioplasty and balloon septostomy. A catheter can also be introduced into a vein or an artery, and used to measure blood pressure or intracranial pressure.
Category : General










