Medical Tubing

Intravenous (IV) tubing: Supplies nourishment, medicines, and fluids directly into the bloodstream.
Catheters: Facilitates the insertion of tiny tubes for drainage, medicine administration, and other treatments. Used for urine or central venous catheters.
Feeding tubes: Provides essential nutritional support for patients unable to eat normally.
Breathing tubing: Delivers oxygen and other breathing gases to those in need.
Surgical Drains: Helps manage fluid and blood drainage post-surgery to aid in healing and prevent complications.
Wound Drainage Systems: Efficiently drains fluids from chronic wounds to promote optimal healing.
Blood Bags: Ensures safe storage and transportation of blood for transfusions.
Dialysis Tubing: Essential for removing waste from a patient’s blood during dialysis treatments.

There are a broad range of materials used to construct medical tubing. Material type determines important performance properties for medical tubes, such as abrasion resistance, hardness, flexibility, and durability. Most medical grade tubing is made of some type of plastic or rubber material, although certain applications may require metal tubes.

Material selection is crucial for medical applications, since incompatible materials can cause a number of problems. For example, incompatible tube materials can chemically alter drugs and medicines or cause them to bind to the tube wall, resulting in failed delivery to the patient. In addition, tubes that are radiopaque (x-ray absorbing) cannot be in or on patients receiving x-ray scans, as it would result in an unacceptable image.