Catheter

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In medicine, a catheter is a tube that a health professional may insert into part of the body. The process of inserting a catheter is catheterization. In most uses it is a thin, flexible tube: a "soft" catheter; in some, it is a larger, solid tube: a "hard" catheter.

Placement of a catheter into a particular part of the body may allow:

draining urine from the urinary bladder as in urinary catheterization, i.e. Foley Catheter
administration of intravenous fluids, medication or parenteral nutrition
injection of dye or radio-opaque contrast into blood vessels or other structures to visualize abnormalities, as in cardiac catheterization, which is part of coronary angiography
direct measurement of blood pressure in a artery or vein
infusion of local anesthetics and other drugs for epidural anesthesia
suctioning of unwanted fluids from the airway (with a hard catheter)

A central line is a conduit for giving drugs or fluids into a large-bore catheter positioned either in a vein near the heart or just inside the atrium.