Using Silicone External Male Catheter Instead of Latex

Urinary incontinence in men could be caused by a variety of issues, like:

• Old Age
• Debilitating Physical Disabilities
• Having Suffered Spinal Cord Injury
• Prostate Problems

In such cases, a physician may recommend the use of a male catheter. This could be an external (latex or silicone external male catheter) or an indwelling catheter. Unfortunately, catheters that are inserted into the urethral opening of the penis usually causes urinary tract infections or UTIs. These infections can be painful and produce tremendous problems to the patient.

The other option are external male catheters which no longer have to be inserted into sensitive tissues. In fact, an external catheter used adhesive on head or glans of the penis to collect urine. As you can imagine this was a huge discovery, even though it still had problems associated with the adhesive material used.

Male patients complained that it would not remain on the penis, causing urine to leak out of the catheter. As a solution to the problem, males were told to utilize adhesive strips to maintain the external male catheter in place. This was not exactly a wonderful solution because the problem was not totally resolved.

The Evolution of External Catheters

When the first external catheter came onto the market, it was made of natural rubber latex. This was a huge problem because latex is something that many people have terrible allergies to. Some allergies are life threatening, thus it prompted medical authorities to switch making an male external catheter from latex to silicone.

This change was highly warranted! The change decreased cases of males suffering from contact dermatitis of the penis due to using a latex catheter. This had caused oozing of the skin as well as very painful blistering. Now, with a catheter made of silicone medical authorities love it because it is nonreactive to any body fluids. Also, it is inert which means that it has no intrinsic power, nor resistance to anything it comes in contact with.

The Benefits of Silicone & New Adhesive

As mentioned above, leaking was a problem, and thus additional medical discoveries came to the aid of the external male catheter, in the form of integral adhesive. Now, those using an external catheter no longer had to utilize those bothersome adhesive strips, and the catheter no longer leaked. Once this was solved, more and more doctors recommended this kind of catheter, a male external catheter had finally been formulated that worked and worked well.

Males who had utilized the old style found a new freedom in these new catheters, these are basically “extended wear”. Whereas those that were inserted often had to be pulled out due to pain or because of physical actions from the patient.

Gone now too with the use of an external catheter were the irksome urinary tract infections that had been caused by the internal catheters. When the urinary tract infections keep happening to the patient, the medical term that is used is acquired hypospadias. Medical authorities are just as glad as the patients are that there now exists an external male catheter if only to prevent acquired hypospadias.

Catheter Video for Conveen Optima Male External Catheter from Coloplast

Watch a YouTube video of Jeff demonstrating how to apply a silicone external catheter:

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