Dispensing container for venus catheters

A container for the sterile storage and dispensing of a catheter intended for insertion into a blood vessel is provided with an outlet opening for dispensing the catheter therethrough and has rotatable means for feeding the catheter out through said outlet and indicating means operatively connected to the feeding means for indicating the length of catheter dispensed through the outlet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to containers for the sterilized storage and 
dispensing of a catheter intended for insertion into a blood vessel. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
The use of central venous catheters is a daily routine during major 
surgical operations and in post-operational wards. The supply of fluid and 
nutrition and the taking of blood samples is facilitated by the use of 
these catheters both for the staff and for the patient. It is of great 
importance that the catheter is maintained in a sterile condition during 
the advancement into the vein which is made through a cannula which has 
been inserted into the vein. Since the catheters have a length of several 
hundreds of millimeters it is difficult to ensure the sterile condition 
without the use of special packagings from which the catheters may be fed 
directly through the cannula by means of a manually operable feeding 
means. In this manner the catheter will remain unexposed, thereby avoiding 
the risk of contamination. 
Such a combined packaging and feeding device as shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 
3,561,445. The catheter is coiled around an arcuate flange in a container, 
and by rotating the container relative to the lid the catheter will be fed 
through an outlet opening in the lid and further through a cannula 
connected to said outlet opening. 
With this known device it is not possible to determine the length of the 
dispensed portion of the catheter except by the use of a graduation 
applied directly to the catheter, allowing the length of catheter advanced 
into the blood vessel to be determined by checking the length of catheter 
remaining in the container. However, it is very difficult to apply an 
easily readable graduation on a catheter, partly due to the small diameter 
of the catheter and partly due to the fact that any graduation markings 
may cause irregularities in the surface of the catheter which must be 
completely smooth in order to keep thrombus formation as low as possible. 
Furthermore, any markings on the catheter must be resistant to being 
dissolved by the blood. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
However, in connection with the use of central venous catheters it is 
highly desirable to be able to determine in a simple way the length of 
catheter that has been advanced into the blood vessel. It would thereby be 
possible to obtain a correct position of the tip of the catheter and such 
complications would be avoided that are connected with a too low or too 
high position of the catheter tip in the central venous system. 
Furthermore, relocation of the catheter would be avoided, thereby also 
avoiding the risk of bacteria contamination. A correct positioning of the 
catheter may be obtained also in the absence of X-ray equipment and 
personnel for controlling the position of the catheter in the central 
venous system, which is of great importance in emergency conditions, mass 
casualties, during the performance of surgical interventions etc. 
Since the correct location of the catheter tip is of utmost importance, 
surveys have been made on the population for determining the distance 
between various puncture sites and the locations where the catheter tip is 
to be placed. For instance, it has been shown that for the basilic vein of 
the right arm the distance between the puncture site in fossa cubiti and 
the junction between superior vena cave and the right atrium is 
48.78.+-.0.29 centimeters for women and 52.90.+-.0.27 centimeters for men. 
It is important that the tip of the catheter reaches the correct location, 
but if the catheter is advanced too far the heart may be damaged. For 
these reasons, a mechanism for the accurate measurement of the length of 
the catheter inserted into the central venous system brings about very 
important advantages and vastly improves the results of such 
catheterization. 
The main object of the present invention is to provide a container for the 
sterile storing and dispensing of a catheter and containing a device for 
giving a direct reading of the length of catheter fed out of the container 
.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 the device consists of a 
cylindrical container 1 in which the catheter 2 is coiled up. The 
container 1 is provided with an outlet 3 to which e.g. a cannula fitting 4 
may be connected. The intention is that the catheter 2 may be fed through 
the outlet 3 and further through the cannula without being exposed. 
The container 1 comprises two parts, one of which consists of a drum 5 open 
towards one end and having a periferal flange 6 at some distance from the 
side wall of the drum. The catheter 2 is coiled around the flange 6. The 
other part 7 of the container 1 forms a lid for the first part 5 and has a 
centrally located opening 8 intended to receive a hub 9 which extends from 
the bottom of the first portion 5 and which by snap action may be 
removably fixed in axial direction in the opening 8. The parts 5 and 7 of 
the container may thereby be rotated relative to each other. The outlet 3 
is preferably formed integrally with the lid and consists of a cylindrical 
passage and a groove 10 (FIG. 5) formed in the lid 7 connected to said 
passage and guiding the catheter 2 into the outlet and cannula fitting. 
The catheter 2 is fed through the outlet 3 by rotating the drum 5 relative 
to the lid 7. The catheter 2 which usually is elastic and comparatively 
stiff in order to facilitate the insertion into the blood vessel will be 
pressed against the side wall of the drum 5 when lying coiled up in the 
drum. The friction between the catheter and the side wall of the drum will 
then be sufficient to prevent a relative movement between them. 
The hub 9 is provided, at some distance from its free end, with a gear ring 
11 which is preferably formed integrally with the hub. The gear ring 11 is 
in meshing engagement with a gear wheel 12 rotatably guided at the inner 
side of the lid 7. The gear wheel 12 in turn engages an internally geared 
ring 13 guided in the side wall of the lid 7. The gear ring 13 is provided 
with a graduation 14 corresponding to the dispensed length of catheter. 
The graduation 14 is readable through a window 15 in the lid 7 which is 
provided with a mark 16 against which the length of catheter fed out is 
red. If the container is made of transparent material, no window is 
needed. 
In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 4-7 the catheter 2 is loosely coiled 
inside the container 1 and is fed between two slightly conically tapered 
rubber rollers 17 and 18 or the like to the outlet 3. One roller 17 is 
rotatable by means of a knob 19 journalled eccentrically on the drum. On 
the same shaft 25 as the roller 17 there is also provided a gear wheel 20 
which acts upon a gear ring 21 guided against the inside of the side wall 
of the part 5. The gear ring 21 has a periferal flange 22 at right angles 
to the plane of the ring and forming a guide for the ring. The free edge 
portion of the flange 22 is guided in a groove 23 in an inwardly turned 
circumferential collar 24 of the part 5. The lid 7 is snapped in position 
engaging said collar. The other roller 18 is rotatably journalled in the 
lid 7. 
By rotating the knob 19 the catheter 2 will be fed between the rollers 17 
and 18 and the length of the fed-out portion of the catheter may be read 
through a window 15 provided in the side wall of the part 5, the 
graduation 14 being provided on the flange 22 of the gear ring 21. The 
fed-out length of the catheter may conveniently be read during the feeding 
out, the container being held in the position illustrated in FIG. 4. 
If the roller 18 is journalled in the part 5 instead of in the lid 7, the 
lid may be eliminated and instead a plastic bag or the like may be 
attached to the part 5 for containing the catheter 2. 
In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 8-11 the gear wheel 11 formed integrally 
with the hub portion 9 of the drum 5 engages the gears 26 of a gear ring 
27 which is rotatably seated in a circularly depressed portion of the lid 
7. As in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 the container is held by the lid 7 
and the drum part 5 is rotated relative thereto (in the direction of the 
arrow 30 in FIG. 8) for feeding the catheter 2 out through the outlet 3. 
The circular wall of the drum 5 is provided on its outside with a 
graduated scale indicating length units, and the figures of the scale are 
visible when opposite a notch 29 in the free edge portion of the periferal 
flange of the lid 7. The outer ring of the gear ring 27 is also provided 
with a graduation visible through an opening 28 adjacent the notch 29 in 
the flange of the lid 7. The graduated scale of the ring 27 covers the 
total length of the catheter 2 contained in the container, and finer 
readings can be made on the scale provided on the outside of the drum 5, 
the latter scale, being divided e.g. into millimeters. 
The invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described and 
as shown in the accompanying drawings, various modifications thereto being 
possible within the scope of the appended claims.