In medicine, a catheter is any hollow thin flexible tube designed to be inserted into the body. The process of inserting a catheter is called catheterization.
Catheters are used for:
- draining urine from the bladder, see urinary catheterization
- administering fluids, intravenous medication or parenteral nutrition into a vein
- injecting dye into blood vessels or other structures to visualize abnormalities, as in cardiac catheterization, also known as coronary angiography
- measuring blood pressure directly in a blood vessel
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