Acanthus Condom Catheter: A Reusable and Adjustable Silicone Male External Catheter With Pressure-Sensitive Silicone Adhesive for Urinary Drainage

Condom catheters are also called external urinary collection devices to collect urine and monitor urine output in hospitalized and other patients with urinary incontinence. They play an important role in reducing catheter-associated urinary tract infections by using invasive indwelling catheters that are placed inside the bladder. Currently, male external catheters come with or without adhesives. Major problems with current condom catheters are finding the right size to fit, excessive slippage needing to replace too many, urine leak, skin irritation, and damage. In some cases, it's a common practice to wrap adhesive tape around the catheter and penis to keep the catheter in place which can cause skin injury. The Acanthus condom catheter is an expandable silicone male external catheter designed and developed to reduce excessive catheter slippage and keep the catheter longer. It works by applying silicone adhesive to the inner catheter wall just below the catheter rim and applying gentle pressure after the placement. It can be adjusted after the placement and can be kept in place by applying gentle pressure around the catheter to prevent slippage. After laboratory testing of the catheter showed it was able to withstand 250% more pressure and 187% higher tensile forces, we have retrospectively reviewed a nursing survey of 14 hospitalized patients using the Acanthus condom catheter for urinary drainage. The mean age was 89 years. A total of 55 evaluations were collected, of which 46 were day shift and nine were night shift responses for a total of 44 catheter days. Results showed that the catheter was easy to use (100%). There was no skin irritation or damage during the application or removal (100%). The catheter was able to drain urine and stayed in place most of the time (89%) except in a few instances it came out, especially during the night shift, but the nurse was able to place it back. There was one instance of urine leak (1.8%). Nurses felt that the catheter was better than existing products in 95% of responses. In conclusion, the Acanthus condom catheter was easy to use, can be reused for up to three days, and was safe on the skin; most importantly, nurses were able to adjust the catheter when they noticed it to be slipping and kept it in place using gentle finger pressure or adding few additional drops of silicone adhesive on the inner catheter wall below the rim and applying brief pressure around the catheter. One size (medium-large) fits most of the patients in the study due to elasticity and stretch dimensions, which eliminated the problem of finding the right size to use.