Many medical procedures benefit from transporting fluid to or from a treatment site of a patient's body. Devices for transporting fluid in a medical procedure are generally referred to as catheters. They may be used to provide drainage or administer treatment fluids. For example, catheters may be used to drain fluids from organs or from areas of abnormal fluid collection such as in a surgical wound following a surgical procedure. Catheters may also be used to deliver fluid to a treatment site to provide a vast range of therapies from cancer treatment to nutritional supplementation. A few exemplary therapies include stimulating tissue growth, administering antibiotics, flushing away impurities, killing or halting the reproduction of cancer cells, and relieving pain.
Catheters may be used in gravity driven arrangements such as with a collection container located below the treatment site or a medication container located above the treatment site. Likewise, catheters may be used in pressurized arrangements. For example, suction may be applied to a drainage catheter to draw fluids away from the treatment site. Suction devices may include elastomeric bulbs, spring actuated bellows, electromechanical vacuum pumps, and other known medical suction devices. Pressurized fluid may also be delivered through a catheter to the treatment site. For example, fluid infusion devices may include manual syringes, elastomeric infusion devices, spring loaded infusion devices, electromechanical infusion devices, and other known infusion devices.
Typical prior catheters are linear devices having one or more openings formed along a portion of their length through which fluid passes. They often perform poorly due to an inability to drain fluids from or deliver fluids to a sufficiently large area to encompass the entire treatment site. In addition, tissue folds and tissue apposition further affect the movement and collection of fluid making it difficult for prior catheters to adequately address the treatment site.
For example, where a treatment site encompasses a two or three dimensional treatment area, prior drainage catheters are only able to drain fluid from a relatively small, linear portion of the treatment area often leaving behind pockets of fluid.
Similarly, prior infusion catheters only deliver treatment fluid to a relatively small, linear portion of the treatment site leaving much of the site untreated. Prior infusion catheters may also deliver too much treatment fluid to a relatively small area resulting in pooling of treatment fluid or contact with non-target tissues. For example, infusion catheters may be used to deliver pain relieving medication directly to a surgical site to provide, for example, post-operative relief of pain resulting from a surgical intervention. If, for example, the medication does not reach tissue disrupted during the surgical intervention, it may not relieve the pain. Alternatively, if the anesthetic is delivered indiscriminately, undesired interactions may occur with local structures such as, for example, spinal nerves or vital organs.