Dispensing – With discharge assistant – Container with follower
Patent
1993-10-18
1996-03-19
Kashnikow, Andres
Dispensing
With discharge assistant
Container with follower
604190, 604301, B67D 542
Patent
active
054997518
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a device for storing a liquid medicinal substance and for administering eye drops constituted by this substance, comprising a rigid cylindrical reservoir containing the said substance and a distributor fitted to one end of this reservoir, this distributor being provided with an applicator nozzle fitted with an orifice designed to form and deposit the said drops in the patient's eye.
Many such devices, which are all designed to store and to administer a medicinal substance intended to be deposited in the form of drops in the eyes of patients are already well-known. In most of such designs the reservoir comprises two walls made of a flexible synthetic material or is in the form of a bellows with folded walls to enable the user to apply pressure such as to cause the evacuation of the liquid in the form of the said drops.
When the said pressure is released, the elastic deformable reservoir creates suction in the applicator nozzle, which has the effect of sucking back inside the reservoir the last drop which had formed at the end of the said nozzle.
However, bacterial contamination of the applicator nozzle at the time of the administration of the drops is practically unavoidable given the proximity of this nozzle to the eye, the eye-lid or the eyelashes. The liquid which is in the immediate proximity of the end of the nozzle, and in particular the last drop which is formed there is necessarily particularly vulnerable to such contamination. In addition, the damp environment particularly favors the growth of germs, the migration of which inside the reservoir cannot be avoided. This migration is speeded up when the last drop is drawn back up into the nozzle.
In order to avoid the whole of the treatment substance contained in the reservoir becoming contaminated, and to prevent the bacterial contamination progressing, appropriate preservatives are added to this substance.
However, it should be noted that the bactericide effect of the preservatives is of limited duration. For this reason, the treatment solutions used as eye drops are only considered to be sterile for a period of approximately thirty days from the date of the first usage. This constraint leads to financial losses and gives rise to the risk of eye infections in patients who do not follow the instructions for use.
The known systems with a flexible reservoir made of synthetic material are not suited to traditional autoclave sterilization due to the high temperatures which the habitually used synthetic materials cannot withstand. This fact constitutes a second reason justifying the presence of bactericide preservatives.
Unfortunately, the presence of preservatives of sufficiently high concentration to be truly effective constitutes a considerable inconvenience as they give rise to major problems for the patient. They can cause denaturation of the cornea, irritations, allergies etc. . .
In order to eliminate the side effects resulting from such preservatives, the latter must be removed before the drops are deposited in the patient's eye.
A known method consists in equipping the device with a membrane, a pad or a filter which specifically absorbs the preservative at the moment when the drop is being administered. Such a method is, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,689. However, such absorbent methods are difficult to design so that they act specifically on the preservatives used without running the risk of acting upon the active substance of the treatment.
The possibilities of acting effectively are limited and their research and development would require major investment. The device of the U.S. patent is equipped with a unidirectional valve such as to try and avoid direct suction back via the distributor nozzle, and the said nozzle is fitted with another unidirectional valve to enable non sterile air to be admitted into the recipient. The presence of these two valves does not solve the problem of contamination of the nozzle and the solution. This design leads to extra costs, in addition to the cost of the absorbent mat
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patent: 5154710 (1992-10-01), Williams
Design Engineering. Aug. 1990, London GB `eye dispenser for glaucoma treatment` see the whole document.
Derakshani Philippe
Kashnikow Andres
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