Catheter

A catheter of silicone rubber or polyvinyl chloride material includes a reinforcement of metal or nylon strands which are spirally wound towards the distal end of the catheter and are there doubled back on themselves and are wound towards the proximal end in the opposite spiral direction so that the catheter has torsional rigidity. As in Figure 1 (not shown), the catheter is provided at the proximal end with a female connecting member (11) for connection to a device such as that claimed in Specification 1,086,821 and has an intermediate portion (17) which tapers towards the distal portion (15). The strands of reinforcement may be braided together and an extra double layer of reinforcement may be provided from the proximal end to the intermediate tapered portion. The catheter may be formed by embedding the reinforcing strands in the material of the catheter and then by curing the catheter in a mould (Figure 5, not shown). Alternatively, the reinforcing strands are wound about a first tube of the plastics material and then a second tube of material is shrunk over the windings. The reinforcement may be omitted p from the distal end portion and this end portion may be moulded of a different, more flexible material to that of the main part of the catheter.