The aim of this book is to provide a multidisciplinary overview of an area of knowledge
that affects a multitude of patients worldwide on a daily basis and that unfortunately
shows a slow technological development. The main reasons for the lack of
innovation in the development of urinary stents and catheters are, on the one side,
the characteristics of the urinary tract, urine and the particularities of the research
groups involved. The urinary tract shows challenging characteristics for the placement
of urinary stents and catheters, both at the level of the upper and lower urinary
tract. The peristalsis, the urinary microbiome, the ease of biofilm formation on the
surface of urinary medical devices, as well as the changes that occur when placing
a ureteral stent such as invalidation of the anti-reflux system of the ureterovesical
junction, and the high sensitivity of the bladder trigone cause manifest drawbacks in
patients. On the other hand, urine is a fluid supersaturated with mineral salts, which
represents a very hostile environment for biomaterials, both polymeric and metallic,
leading to a series of side effects with stents and catheters that favour encrustation
and bacterial contamination. This leads to the failure of these medical devices in
daily clinical practice. In addition to all these limitations, which make the urinary
tract a complicated area for innovation in indwelling medical devices, the research
groups involved in the improvement of these devices are composed of a small number
of researchers and are groups generally isolated from each other. It is logical to
think that the possibility of improving urinary stents and catheters will come from a
wider and mainly multidisciplinary approach, as many different disciplines are
needed to overcome the current pitfalls. Not only urologists are important, because
although they are the ones who know the limitations of the current urological armamentarium,
technological development is also the responsibility of other areas of
knowledge. These include bioengineering, chemical engineering, microbiology,
experts in coatings, in new polymers, in biomaterials, translational researchers,
experts in new metal alloys, etc. And to this large group of researchers it is also
necessary to include physicists, mathematicians and experts in an area that affects
the urinary tract and the medical devices that are placed inside it, which is fluid
dynamics
