Self-Disinfecting Urethral Catheter to Overcome Urinary Infections: From Antimicrobial Photodynamic Action to Antibacterial Biochemical Entities

Medical-device-related infections are considered a worldwide public health problem. In particular, urinary catheters are responsible for 75% of cases of hospital urinary infections (a mortality rate of 2.3%) and present a high cost for public and private health systems. Some actions have been performed and described aiming to avoid it, including clinical guidelines for catheterization procedure, antibiotic prophylaxis, and use of antimicrobial coated-urinary catheters. In this review paper, we present and discuss the functionalization of urinary catheters surfaces with antimicrobial entities (e.g., photosensitizers, antibiotics, polymers, silver salts, oxides, bacteriophage, and enzymes) highlighting the immobilization of photosensitizing molecules for antimicrobial photodynamic applications. Moreover, the characterization techniques and (photo)antimicrobial effects of the coated-urinary catheters are described and discussed. We highlight the most significant examples in the last decade (2011–2021) concerning the antimicrobial coated-urinary catheter and their potential use, limitations, and future perspectives.