Setting up a urinary catheter evaluation model and optimizing its usage

Abstract

Catheter-associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) is a type of hospital-acquired infection. It is mainly caused by the bacterial biofilm formation on the urinary catheters. Bacterial species can either be introduced into patient’s bladder during insertion, or can already be present before the insertion. Even though preventive methods such as aseptic insertion and maintaining closed drainage system are used, CAUTI occurrence remains the highest among the different nosocomial infections. Currently, antibacterial coated catheters are used in combination with the other preventive measures, but are increasingly ineffective due to the evolving bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Other forms of coating are also being explored to find new effective solutions to CAUTI. Poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA) antifouling property makes it an attractive polymeric surface coat to be explored. However, having a model which replicates clinical catheterization conditions, for the evaluation of newly innovated coated catheters, is as important as innovating new coatings. For this project, an in-vitro catheterization model (IVCM) and its experimental methods were studied to assemble similar models. The assembled models were used to evaluate the effectiveness of pSBMA coated catheters. Throughout the project, changes were made to the set-up for optimization.