Triple-lumen critical care catheter

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The purpose of the present invention is to provide a superior triple-lumen catheter with respect to optimization of size, fluid mechanical efficiency and ability to infuse large volumes of fluids at a high rate.
A related object is to provide such a catheter that has the structural stability required for inserting the catheter into deep seated and curved central veins.
When critically ill patients requiring fluid resuscitation arrive in the emergency room or develop shock in the operating room, fluids are usually infused from an I.
V.
fluid source hung from a height of three to four feet.
This gravity head usually provides a good infusion rate.
However, occasionally the infusion bottles need to be externally compressed to enhance the infusion rate.
The compression devices are not universally available, however, and thus it is desirable that the catheter be efficient enough to provide adequate flow by gravity alone.
The present invention provides an efficient circular or elliptical flow geometry that offers the least flow resistance.
The circular or elliptical infusion cavity is enlarged to increase the flux by the fourth power of the radius.
It occupies a major portion of the cross section of the triple-lumen catheter.
The present invention also provides a small catheter which is fluid mechanically efficient and permits high-volume infusions by the gravity gradient alone.
The other two lumens are semicrescentic and have no constraints with respect to gradient.
Medications can be injected by syringe, and samples of blood can be aspirated by manual force.
These functions do not depend on the gravity head.
Hydrostatic pressure can also be measured through the smaller lumens, and if necessary it can also be measured via the larger circular or elliptical infusion lumen by momentarily connecting the larger lumen line to a nanometer via a stopcock.
Another attribute of this invention is that it can permit multiple infusions of medications that are incompatible with each other but can be infused individually through the independent lumens and released at axially staggered points in the high flow circulatory system