Common Uses of Catheters

A catheter is a slender tube, usually plastic, slid into a body cavity or a vein for delivering medications or draining fluid.

Common uses: Some drain the kidney or the bladder. Others are threaded through arteries to clear blockages. Smilarly, catheters can be snaked into the heart so that X-ray dyes can be infused, helping to show how valves are functioning. Specialized catheters called tracheal tubes pass fluid and gas out of the lungs.