: 142 In 1982, Quinton together with Dr Sakharam Mahurkar, a nephrologist at County Cook Hospital in Chicago, developed dual-lumen catheter which became the standard for haemodialysis and apheresis.Sheridan was dubbed the "Catheter King" by Forbes magazine in 1988. He also invented the modern "disposable" plastic endotracheal tube now used routinely in surgery. Materials
Urinary catheters
A range of polymers are used for the construction of catheters, including silicone rubber, nylon, polyurethane, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), latex, and thermoplastic elastomers. Silicone is one of the most common implantable choice because it is inert and unreactive to body fluids and a range of medical fluids with which it might come into contact. On the other hand, the polymer is weak mechanically, and a number of serious fractures have occurred in catheters. For example, silicone is used in Foley catheters where fractures have been reported, often requiring surgery to remove the tip left in the bladder. There are many different types of catheters for bladder problems. A typical modern intermittent catheter is made from polyurethane and comes in different lengths and sizes for men, women and children.Some catheters are packed in a sterile saline solution.
Extending his inventiveness to his familys medical problems, Benjamin Franklin invented the flexible catheter in 1752 when his brother John suffered from bladder stones. Franklins catheter was made of metal with segments hinged together with a wire enclosed to provide rigidity during insertion.According to a footnote in his letter in Volume 4 of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin (1959), Franklin credits Francesco Roncelli-Pardino from 1720 as the inventor of a flexible catheter. In fact, Franklin claims the flexible catheter may have been designed even earlier.An early modern application of the catheter was employed by Claude Bernard for the purpose of cardiac catheterization in 1844. The procedure involved entering a horses ventricles via the jugular vein and carotid artery. This appears to be an earlier and modern application of the catheter because this catheter approach technique is still performed by neurosurgeons, cardiologists, and cardiothoracic surgeons.David S. Sheridan invented the modern disposable catheter in the 1940s. Prior to this, some reusable catheters consisted of braided cotton tubes, which were varnished, heat-treated and polished. As these were primarily produced in France, the advent of World War II threatened the supply chain.In 1959, Teschan first described central venous catheter as means of blood vessel access for haemodialysis.Other reusable catheters consisted of red rubber tubes. Although sterilized prior to reuse, they still posed a high risk of infection and often led to the spread of disease.