Expert: Catheter reprocessing device has potential to be “game changer”

In this video, Ana Lidia Flores-Mireles, PhD, further discusses the reusable intermittent urinary catheter system and reprocessing device evaluated in the Urology study “Initial Antimicrobial Testing of a Novel Reusable Intermittent Urinary Catheter System and Catheter Reprocessing Device.” Flores-Mireles is the Janet C. and Jeffrey A. Hawk Collegiate Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Do you see any need for patient or health care professional training for the Aurie system?

No, this is super easy. Of course, the first device was huge, and the feedback that we [received] was, "This is too much." There was a lot of communication with all the different [components], the scientific [component] [and] the company,...to try to make something small and simple...Even for us, when we were still doing all of that, it was really straightforward. So this is not going to require additional training by any staff or the patient.

I think that one of the major issues that we have...is that we have a lot of pathogens. They are becoming multi-drug resistant, to everything, to all the different drugs that we have. There are people that suffer [many] UTIs, and the quality of life is difficult. With this system, we're not involving the bacteria because we're killing it. We're washing everything. There is no way that they will survive that. It's not like an antimicrobial that will stop something [but there will be] a mutation, and they're going to be able to survive. So the fact that we can meet the incidence of UTIs in this patient population, that they are not healthy already, they're already going through all of this, that we can improve the quality of life. That's huge. Not only that, [but]...we have found that even 1 pathogen can affect your bladder completely and make you more susceptible to get more infections over time. So to have something like this [that is] so simple that you're washing the catheter...and it will improve your quality of life, I think, is a life-changing device. The idea that the company has to make it affordable speaks to the fact that they really want to improve the quality of life of these patients.

Is there anything you would like to add?

The idea is to keep improving these devices. I don't know if I'm going to work with them again, but the fact that we're going to have something that is FDA regulated is critical. None of these catheters that are available right now can [be reused], because the companies have not tested them. And again, we don't even have protocols for the patients to follow and clean their own catheters. There is lack of regulation, in many ways. To have a device that has been tested so many times that it proves it can clean the catheter. That is reproducibility. It's not you doing it, it's just put it right there and get it clean, and then you can re-use it safely and reduce the incidence of UTIs. Many patients end up having recurring UTIs from [their first] infection. So I think that that will be life changing because many of these patients use tons of antibiotics. Antibiotics will affect your gut microflora. Now, we know that your gut microflora is really important for you, not only for digestion, [but] even for mental health and metabolic disease. So the fact that we're going to improve quality of life by reducing the amount of antibiotics and reducing the waste by using single intermittent catheters, I think this, again, is a game changer.

This transcript was edited for clarity.