Variable resilience plastics tube for medical device - has rigid part connected to resilient part by relatively flexible intermediate part

摘要

The plastics tube used for a variety of medical or surgical devices is made with a rigid portion attached to a flexible portion both containing materials having different properties. These portions are joined by an intermediate portion which contains some of both sets of materials. Tube of this nature can be produced by an extrusion machine fed successively with the two sets of materials. In one form the tube can be a bronchial suction catheter with a flexible port connected to a more rigid part terminating in a connector. In a second form the tube is a suction tube with a ribbed head at the end of a rigid stem connected by a less rigid port to the main resilient tube. Similarly, a suction catheter has a thin solid tip connected by a resilient tube to the relatively stiff end part. Further devices include a cannula for a syringe and a blood purification loop.