AN EPIDURAL CATHETER DISPENSER SYSTEM TO CONTAIN AND CONTROL AN EPIDURAL CATHETER, MAINTAIN EPIDURAL CATHETER STERILITY AND PREVENT EPIDURAL CATHETER CONTAMINATION

摘要

An epidural injection is used in medical procedure to administer medication to a patient's epidural space in the spine, usually to alleviate pain. The current invention, an epidural catheter dispenser system, seeks to eliminate this risk of epidural catheter contamination by maintaining the epidural catheter, especially the proximal catheter end, in a sterile dispenser that can be easily manipulated by a physician. The epidural catheter dispenser system defines an inner cavity in which an epidural catheter may be loaded. When ready for use, a distal catheter end is extracted from the dispenser's inner cavity through a dispenser aperture on the dispenser's distal end piece, or top, allowing the physician to direct the epidural catheter into an epidural needle bore and into a patient's epidural space. Because the epidural catheter dispenser system and its epidural catheter contents fit easily into the palm of a physician's hand, the proximal catheter end is permanently in a controlled, contained sterile environment throughout the entire catheter placement procedure until extracted from the dispenser.