Angiotech's managers reckon their company has devised a good way to apply drug coatings to all sorts of medical paraphernalia, from sutures and syringes to catheters, in order to reduce the shock to the body.
That might be possible with, for instance, smart catheters that use ultrasound to help non-specialists guide them correctly into blood vessels.
Today silver is routinely found in wound dressings and catheters to treat or prevent infections.
It can, for example, be used in small amounts to coat medical catheters to reduce the possibility of infection without causing environmental worries.
Sadly, their fears are occasionally well founded.Central venous catheters, or central lines, are commonly used with critically ill patients to administer drugs, fluids, food or blood products close to the heart.
A PREMATURE baby in an incubator, smothered in wires, catheters and sensors, sometimes looks more like an experimental animal than a newly arrived member of the human race.
This permits the visualization of arteries and veins without the need for needles, catheters, or contrast agents.
The encapsulated radioactive sources are inserted into the tumour via catheters or needles.
At that time flexible catheters were developed for examining and draining the bladder, and in 1877 the German urologist Max Nitze developed the cystoscope.
Balloon-tipped catheters can be used to stop active bleeding or to introduce a supportive stent, which is permanently placed inside an artery to stabilize a weakened vessel or to keep a narrowed vessel open.
Thomas Annandale, for example, blew through his catheters to make sure that they were clear, and many an instrument, dropped accidentally, was simply given a quick wipe and returned to use.
