Midstream sampling of catheterized liquid flow from a body cavity and improved coupling therefor

In a urinary catheterization system that includes upstream flexible catheter supply tube means through which captured liquid is ducted, downstream flexible receptor tube and capture means spaced from said upstream tube means and adapted to receive liquid therefrom, and a tubular cross member constructed to define intersecting elongated passageways each partially bounded by a pair of spaced, elongated, open-ended tubular arms of internal cylindrical periphery, said cross member being interposed between said upstream and downstream tube means and providing spaced upstream and downstream tubular arms thereof respectively telescoped with portions of said upstream and downstream flexible tube means to provide separable but liquid tight connections between each tube means and its tubular arm, and with the other pair of opposed tubular arms having an internal cylindrical periphery for receiving therein an elongated, slidable, valve member, of exterior cylindrical periphery, that requires application thereto of a deliberate positive manual force to move said slidable member in either of opposite directions;

• the improvement of a multiple position midstream valve, for directing the catheterized urine selectively along either of two completely separate flow paths in the slidable valve member to avoid cross contamination of the urine and/or of the technician handling the equipment and surroundings, comprising, in combination:
• said elongated and selectively positionable slidable valve member being shaped and arranged to define a first transverse flow passageway means formed in and through said valve member and extending substantially diametrically of the longitudinal axis of said valve member and at a location spaced axially from both ends of said valve member, and a second flow passageway means in said valve member but spaced axially from said first flow passageway means, said second flow passageway means being shaped to provide a first portion thereof extending radially into the valve member from a terminal opening in the side wall of the elongated valve member, and a second portion thereof communicating with said first portion and extending axially of the valve member to terminate at and through one end of the elongated valve member;
• the other end of the elongated valve member projecting axially outwardly of its said surrounding tubular arm and being provided thereat with grippable control means which affords means to effect manual selective axial movement of the valve member for axial positioning of said valve member in said second pair of opposed tubular arms;
• said valve member being shaped to provide seal surfaces thereon which slide against and cooperate with the inner periphery of the second pair of tubular arms to prevent liquid flow leakage between the adjacent surfaces of the valve member and the surrounding tubular arms, and which also function to isolate the first and second flow passageways means in the valve member from each other, so as to foreclose cross flow between said flow passageway means;
• and
• means operatively associated with said control means of said elongated slide valve member, but spaced from the interior of the tubular arms that surround the slide valve member, and cooperating with means provided integrally on the exterior of said cross member for preventing rotation of the elongated, cylindrical, slide valve member about its longitudinal axis and providing means to precisely selectively position each of the two flow passageway means in the valve member in flow receiving relation relative to the flow supplying passageway through said upstream tubular arm of the cross member.