摘要 |
A catheter assembly includes an elongated flexible (transparent or translucent) tube with a drainage lumen, an inflatable balloon fluidly coupled to an inflation adapter by an inflation lumen, and an illumination adapter configured to optically couple a light source to the catheter assembly. At least one illumination lumen contains at least one flexible elongated light emitting element such as an optical fiber, OLED fiber, LED strand or waveguide adapted to emit light at one or more points along the length of the flexible elongated light emitting element. The flexible elongated light emitting element emits sensible light through the bladder and through the urethra between the urethral meatus and prostate to illuminate the bladder, the bladder neck, the urethra adjacent to the prostate and surrounding tissue, thereby reducing the risk of damage to adjacent tissue. To provide various colors of light, colored light sources and/or colored filters may be utilized. To enable emission of light at determined points of an optical fiber, cladding (and jacket, if any) is removed from the optical fiber.
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