Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Patent
1997-03-18
1998-11-17
Yasko, John D.
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
604263, A61M 532
Patent
active
058369201
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a guard for a hypodermic needle and needle cannula for use in the prevention of accidental needle-stick injuries.
BACKGROUND ART
To protect medical personnel from accidental needle-stick injuries, several different types of needle assemblies have been proposed for use with syringes and cannulas. In some of these, a syringe needle is automatically withdrawn into the barrel of the syringe on release of the syringe plunger. In others, a sleeve covering the barrel can be moved to cover the needle after an injection has taken place. Sometimes, the needle assembly is provided with a protective cap which can be moved from a position adjacent the needle tip to one over the needle point after use. Such an assembly is described in European Patent Application EP-A-0460914 wherein an elongate protective sheath is located around a needle and is pivotally mounted to a base from which the needle protrudes. The sheath defines an elongate opening through which the needle can pass as the sheath is pivotted away or towards the needle, for example before or after use respectively. In addition, the sheath and the needle base comprise complementary holding means whereby the sleeve is displaceable in a longitudinal direction to locate the needle tip in a sleeved portion of the sheath, thus preventing the needle from being pivotted out of the sheath via the slot.
However, this and the other aforementioned conventional arrangements suffer from at least one of two serious disadvantages: they are either expensive to manufacture, or they are not fail safe as they require the person using the needle to take some positive action to cover the needle tip after use.
It will be appreciated that these disadvantages are serious because unless a needle guard is inexpensive relative to the cost of the needle assembly being used it will tend not to be used as a matter of routine. Similarly, devices which require action by medical staff to make them safe do not give adequate protection against accidental injuries caused, for example if the needle is dropped after use or if the patient is difficult to handle. In addition, sometimes the very act of making the needle safe can force the user to come close to touching the tip of the needle.
In European Patent Application EP-A-0 343 438 is disclosed a needle shield which comprises a flexible elongated device which extends over and along a needle top and both sides thereof with a hood shield at one end for extending over the point of the needle. In use, when a user wishes to insert the needle through a patient's skin, the blunt hood shield at the front end is pressed against the skin of the patient and the needle inserted. Immediately after removal of the needle from the patient's skin, the shield moves automatically back into place over the point of the needle. In a modification, a frictional locking arrangement can be provided which the user may utilize for holding the shield firmly in place over the needle when it is not being used either before or after contamination.
Such a needle shield as described in this European specification is an improvement over the other devices previously mentioned because the shield moves automatically back into place after use. However, it does have several disadvantages. First, despite the fact that a locking arrangement can be provided to hold the hood of the shield in place over the needle tip, even when locked in position there is nothing to stop the shield from being flexed back adjacent the locking arrangement to expose the needle tip. Second, when the locking arrangement is provided it inhibits automatic coverage of the needle tip by the hood shield after use of the needle. Third, the needle tip in this arrangement is never enclosed either before or after needle use and whilst the hood shield provides protection against needle stick injury if a user moves directly longitudinally with respect to the needle, injuries caused by grazing or side-swipe are still possible.
In W093/18809 is disclosed a needle guard wh
REFERENCES:
patent: 4867746 (1989-09-01), Dufresne
patent: 5092461 (1992-03-01), Adam
patent: 5135509 (1992-08-01), Olliffe
patent: 5256152 (1993-10-01), Marks
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