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A Study on Latex and Microbial Catheters

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LATEX AND ANTIMICROBIAL CATHETERS 2 Latex and Microbial Catheters Latex and Microbial Catheters Introduction Catheters are tubes that can be inserted to drain fluid, administer drugs, gases and aid during surgery in the human body. Catheters can be permanent (indwelling) or can be intermittent to mean they can be removed after each catheterization. Catheters provide many benefits, but they are also causing acquired infections like UTI in the hospitals. This leads to further health risks to the patients like; morbidity, discomfort and pain. Sometimes catheters can cause secondary bloodstream infections, which can cause death. Despite these disadvantages, catheters remain widely used (Doughty, B.D.pg 270). To reduce these infections, antimicrobial catheters should be preferred to latex catheters as it provides more benefits that reduce the infections. Patients Nursing homes have a high number of the elderly, who use urinary tract catheters. Urinary infections are common in patients over 50 years and most common among the female. UTI's associated with catheters affect most of them; this increases the medical expenses and the period of hospitalization. Using antimicrobial catheters can reduce the rate of infection especially for patients using it for a short time like 7 days. During the selection of catheters, different factors can be put into consideration. The clinician should consider the coating and the primary material. Base materials are latex and silicon with

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