An unfinished sample featuring the additional channel that can be inflated to dislodge biofilms.VRAD LEVERINGThe device: Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, have developed an early prototype of a new urinary catheter that flushes stubborn bacterial biofilms from the main drainage tube on demand.
In patients using long-term urinary catheters, bacterial biofilms can block urine flow and harbor pathogens that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs). But the new design, described this week in Advanced Healthcare Materials (March 25), provides a clever solution: a separate channel running alongside the main drainage tract that can be inflated with saline or air, which stretches and deforms the inner surface of the main tract and, as a result, dislodges the biofilm.
“Think of the biofilm as a city that bacteria build to protect themselves,” explained study coauthor Vrad Levering, a graduate student in biomedical engineering. “What we’re doing is like causing a series of earthquakes, reducing the city to rubble that can be washed away in a flood of urine.”
Levering and his ...
