A medical supply dialysis catheter is a kind of catheter, made up of a tube that is about 30cm (12in) long and as wide as a pencil. Although the tube feels quite soft to touch, it is made from a very hardwearing type of plastic. The commonly used type of medical supply dialysis catheter is called a "tenchkoff" (pronounced ten coff). Around half of the catheter lies inside the abdomen, and half lies outside the body. The tube that is used to drain urine from the bladder is also called a catheter, but the PD catheter is different.

Long-term medical supply dialysis catheters are used to provide indwelling vascular access to end-stage renal disease patients requiring dialysis treatments. Most of these patients suffer from reduced kidney function that’s why they are required to have their blood cleansed through the use of a dialysis machine.

As years passed, the catheter designs continue to improve. There are various kinds of catheter tips, developed to answer the problems with regard to using dialysis. One of the problems identified is on stepped tip catheters, when the arterial flow is limited to one side of the catheter lumen, which can cause the catheter tip to suck up against the vessel wall. This phenomenon is known as arterial insufficiency. Split-tip technology reduces the risk of arterial insufficiency by having 360º side hole coverage, which distributes the vacuum around the circumference of the arterial lumen, providing alternate flow paths.

The other one is the fixed split-tips. Earlier split-tip designs required the user to separate the tips themselves, leaving the placing physician to guess what the good split length was for a given patient. However, newer fixed split-tip catheters fix the split at 7.5 cm. to ensure that the split will not extend beyond the venotomy, even in small patients. These earlier split- tip catheter designs have high risks for excess bleeding, infection, or damage to the catheter lumens. But due to modern developments in technology as well as medicine, the medical supply dialysis catheter is further enhanced to bring more quality solutions to its users.