Two-piece rapidly insertable central catheters, introducers therefor, and methods thereof

An introducer for a rapidly insertable central catheter (“RICC”), comprising:

• a catheter-advancement hub including a manifold and a side arm, the catheter-advancement hub configured to couple to a distal catheter piece of the RICC in an introducer assembly;
• an introducer needle having a needle shaft configured to extend through the manifold and a distal end of the distal catheter piece in a ready-to-deploy state of the introducer assembly;
• a syringe fluidly coupled to the introducer needle proximal of the introducer needle, the syringe including a barrel having a distal portion terminating in a syringe tip, wherein the barrel is aligned with a longitudinal axis of the introducer, the syringe configured to be held around the distal portion of the barrel between a thumb and a finger or fingers of a hand while reserving a single finger for actuating the introducer;
• an access guidewire disposed in an introducer-needle portion of an access-guidewire lumen formed of a needle lumen of the introducer needle;
• and
• an introducer housing over the syringe tip, the manifold, and a proximal portion of the distal catheter piece in the ready-to-deploy state of the introducer assembly, the introducer housing configured to:
• provide column strength to a catheter tube of the distal catheter piece during a venipuncture on a patient with the introducer needle;
• and
• longitudinally split allowing the distal catheter piece to be removed from the introducer housing after the venipuncture.

A rapidly insertable central catheter (“RICC”) system, comprising:

• a RICC including:
• a distal catheter piece including a distal catheter-hub piece of a two-piece catheter hub and a catheter tube coupled to the distal catheter-hub piece;
• and
• a proximal catheter piece including a proximal catheter-hub piece of the two-piece catheter hub;
• and
• an introducer configured to combine with the distal catheter piece in an introducer assembly for a venipuncture on a patient, the introducer including:
• a catheter-advancement hub including a manifold and a side arm, the catheter-advancement hub coupled to a proximal portion of the distal catheter-hub piece in a ready-to-deploy state of the introducer assembly;
• an introducer needle having a needle shaft extending through the manifold and a distal end of the distal catheter piece in the ready-to-deploy state of the introducer assembly;
• a syringe proximally and fluidly coupled to the introducer needle by way of a syringe tip;
• the syringe including a barrel, wherein the barrel is aligned with a longitudinal axis of the introducer;
• and
• an introducer housing over the syringe tip, the manifold, and a proximal portion of the distal catheter piece in the ready-to-deploy state of the introducer assembly, the introducer housing configured to longitudinally split allowing the distal catheter piece to be removed from the introducer housing after the venipuncture for clipping the proximal catheter piece together with the distal catheter piece by way of the two-piece catheter hub.