A urinary catheter assembly having a catheter tube disposed within an outer sheath, a closure member being provided over the distal end of the sheath. Penetration of the catheter assembly into the urethra is limited by the provision of a stop member extending outwardly from the sheath and spaced from the sheath's distal end by a specific distance to allow the sheath to pass bacteria in the outer portion of the urethra, but penetrate no further.

The invention concerns sleeves for protection against internal contaminations for a gynaecological gun for animals of the type comprising a tubular body, a chamber for storing the product to be injected or aspirated, and ejecting or aspirating means (7) operative through the front end of the body. The problem is to avoid contaminations through the medium of the gun between the vagina and the uterus of the animal. According to the invention, such a sleeve comprises a cylindrical element (13) of flexible and thin material and having an end (13c) which is closed in a sealed manner but is tearable, the length of the sleeve approximately corresponding to the length of the whole of the gun, two substantially parallel slits (16) being provided in the vicinity of the end (13a) opposed to the closed end. The invention is advantageous in the artificial insemination of bovines.

A flexible, membranous envelope, in a shroud-conduit-collector configuration for sheathing a catheter. In basic mode, the shroud, which essentially envelops the catheter, is partially disposable in an end of the catheter and is extractable therefrom by manipulation of the user. The shroud joins the conduit, that terminates in an integral, yet separable collector. To cure the basic mode's sole limitation, possible infusion of urethra secretions into the opening of the incipiently inserted catheter, a plurality of leaves are attached by their base margins to the shroud exterior, near enough to the inserted opening that their unattached, leading margins can be folded by interleaving them over, and covering, the opening. By this device, an alternate embodiment avoids the catheter-disposed shroud. Other devices are integrated to facilitate manipulation, as well as to aid in after-use separation, sealing and handling of the collector.

A catheter assembly comprises a catheter and a sheath enclosing the catheter to preserve the sterility thereof, the sheath being provided with a plurality of fold lines which form accordion-like pleats to enable a collapse of the sheath at a point of insertion of the catheter into a patient. The sheath is provided at a distal end of the catheter with a flange for engaging a patient during an insertion of the catheter into the patient. A catheter assembly also comprises an anchor balloon attached to the catheter at a distal end thereof, an ancillary balloon attached to the catheter at a point spaced in a proximal direction from the anchor balloon, a tube connecting the ancillary balloon to the anchor balloon so as to enable communication therebetween, and a flow stop mounted to the catheter for preventing fluid from returning to the tube from the anchor balloon upon a pressurization of the anchor balloon with fluid forced from the tube by an application of pressure to the ancillary balloon. A hollow catheter plug defining a flash chamber and having a transparent wall is connected to the catheter at a proximal end thereof for communicating with the catheter. A valve is connected to the plug for preventing fluid flow from the flash chamber.

A catheter assembly comprising, a catheter having an elongated shaft, and an elongated sleeve of flexible material covering at least a substantial portion of the catheter. The sleeve has a pair of opposed first and second walls extending between a pair of opposed longitudinal fold lines at sides of the sleeve with the catheter being received between the walls in a generally flat configuration of the sleeve. The sleeve has a circumferential cuff of enlarged dimensions defining an open distal end of the sleeve.