Single piece catheter hub and strain relief that can be injection molded over a shaft

摘要

Medical vascular catheters adapted to be inserted into a blood vessel from an incision through the skin of a patient for introducing other devices or fluids for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes into the patient's vasculature and manufacturing methods are disclosed. The catheters 10 have a unitary catheter hub and strain relief 60 formed at the proximal end of the catheter body 15 for attachment to other apparatus and for inhibiting kinking of the catheter body. The unitary catheter hub and strain relief is formed of a proximal hub portion and a distal strain relief coil surrounding the catheter body in a catheter hub/body junction 70. The distal strain relief coil is shaped as a distally tapered, single coil 65 to provide distally increasing flexibility and uniform bending characteristics in 360° around the circumference of the catheter body received within the within the strain relief coil lumen. The strain relief coil is optionally formed with blends of materials selected to distally increase the distal strain relief bending flexibility.