Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-02
2001-10-02
Nguyen, Anhtuan T. (Department: 3763)
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296623
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is a flexible conduit and carrier assembly for conveying liquid such as local anesthetic under elevated pressure from a vial to a hollow needle adapted to be implanted in the tissue, particularly the gingival tissue of the mouth.
2. Brief Discussion of the Related Art
The applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,747,824 and 5,180,371 disclose apparatus and method by means of which local anesthetic can be administered virtually without pain into the tissues, particular the mouth. In accordance with this invention, a vial of anesthetic is mounted in a holster unit detachably mounted at a programmed and controllable pumping station which forces the anesthetic from the vial at predetermined flow rates with greater precision than can be achieved with conventional hand syringes. The holster includes means to pierce the rubber diaphragm of the vial and to convey the liquid through a flexible microbore tube to a handle assembly carrying a conventional hollow needle to inject the anesthetic into the tissue.
Such holster, flexible conduit and needle assemblies must be disposable for sanitary reasons and must, therefore be relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, they must be engineered so they can quickly and easily be mated with anesthetic vials and then attached to the pumping station and just as easily be disassembled and not infrequently re-loaded for use on the same patient. They must also be light in weight, able to withstand high liquid pressures and readily manipulated at difficult injection sites.
The object of the invention, therefore, is to provide an assembly which meets all of these difficult and somewhat incompatible design criteria.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, a holster design is provided which, as a single die cast unit, is capable of receiving a sealed vial of anesthetic and of automatically puncturing the membrane seal at the head end of the vial by means of an integral, sharp-pointed, hollow probe at the base of the holster to tap into the reservoir of liquid anesthetic. The holster includes tab means at its forward end to detachably lock it to the pumping station and to actuate a ram to drive the plug or piston in the rearward end of the vial into the vial's reservoir to force the liquid through the flexible microbore conduit to the needle under a wide range of pressures. The flexible conduit is coupled to both the holster and the needle handle in a high pressure seal.
Because it is frequently required that a second vial of anesthetic be used for the same patient, it should be possible to quickly detach the disposable assembly from the pump, eject the spent vial and insert a fresh vial. In accordance with the invention, swift removal of the spent vial is facilitated by arranging the geometry of the holster so that the vial can be gripped to detach it from the holster, when it is to be discarded. This can be achieved, for example, by means of a pair of complementary diametrically opposed finger apertures in the side wall of the holster to enable the vial to be tightly gripped and pulled out of the holster against the friction of the probe gripped by the rubber membrane of the vial.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4430079 (1984-02-01), Thill et al.
patent: 4974603 (1990-12-01), Jacobs
patent: 5180371 (1993-01-01), Spinello
patent: 5354537 (1994-10-01), Moreno
patent: 5496286 (1996-03-01), Stiehl et al.
patent: 6022337 (2000-02-01), Herbst et al.
Galgano & Burke
Lam Ann
Nguyen Anhtuan T.
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