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Medical Polymer Tubing
: Applications & Extrusion Technology Highlights
Critical Applications, Medical Tubing
Configurations, Material & Process Requirements For
High-Quality Extruded Tubing, About Catheter Tubing,
Methods To Assess Tubing Quality, The Economics Of
Extrusion
The medical tubing segment comprises
the most dynamic area in the medical device landscape.
The market for Plastic Medical Tubing is expecting
significant growth due to changing global demographics
and the growth of medical procedures such as minimally
invasive surgeries.
As per a recent study by “MarketsAndMarekets”,
the global medical tubing market size is projected to
grow from USD 4.9 billion in 2021 to USD 7.9 billion by
2026, at a CAGR of 10.0% between 2021 and 2026.
Primary drivers of the global market for
medical tubing are the increasing demand for medical
devices that incorporate tubing, the growing access to
health care around the globe, which carries with it a
market for medical devices and the tubing associated
with those devices and minimally invasive surgeries.
A technical article on analysing use of
various polymeric materials in one of our previous
issues (MPDS - May-June 2018) by Mr Dan Lazas , Senior
Director, Tekni-plex covered critical applications like
Blood Management, Therapeutic Delivery, Cardiac
Intervention etc.
For the benefit of the Medical Plastics
Processing Industry, we give below highlights for some
of the important facts related to Medical Tubing &
Extrusion Process.
Critical Applications
Applications that rely heavily on
medical tubings / extrusion technology include the
following:
• Neurovascular (e.g., treatment of
stroke).
• Cardiovascular (e.g., angioplasty, stenting, cardiac
ablation, and mitral valve repair).
• Peripheral interventions (e.g., stent grafts, venous
therapy).
• Endoscopic and renal denervation applications
• Implants (e.g, inferior vena cava filter, and
prosthetics valves).
Medical Tubing Configurations
Medical Tubes are categorized mainly by
following types according to Different Configurations:
a. According to the structure :
Single-Lumen, Double-Lumen, Multi-Lumen, Two-Row,
Multi-Row etc.
b. According to the performance : High-Pressure
Tube, UV Protection Tube, Flame Retardant Tube
Antimicrobial Tube, Gamma Ray Protection Tube.
c. According to the usage : High-Transparent
Tube, Tube With Color Line (One Or Multi-Lines),
Radiopaque Tube (One Of Multi-Lines Or Whole),
Micro-Flow Tube, Intravascular Tube, Balloon Tube,
High-Pressure Tube.
Material & Process Requirements For
High-Quality Extruded Tubing
A good understanding of polymer science
and the behavior of polymer materials is extremely
important for achieving highquality extruded tubing.
Polymer material suitable for medical tubing should
have: Inertness to body tissues and fluids, Flexibility,
Resistance to sterilization conditions, Low extraction,
Clarity and Low cost for high volume applications.
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