Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Patent
1996-07-30
1997-12-09
Hafer, Robert A.
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
604135, 604208, 604211, A61M 520, A61M 500
Patent
active
056954727
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to modular automatic injection apparatuses for injecting medications into bodily tissue.
BACKGROUND ART
An automatic injection apparatus is a device which enables an individual to self-administer fluid medication by simply triggering the apparatus. The apparatus contains a measured dose of medication in a sealed sterile condition and is capable of storing the medication for an extensive period of non-use. The apparatus administers the self-contained dose automatically, so that the user does not need to visually insert the needle into his or her own tissue and then depress a plunger, such as is required in a common syringe.
Automatic injectors are particularly advantageous in emergency conditions. Such injectors can carry: antidotes for nerve gas for use during emergency chemical warfare conditions; insulin for diabetes; epinephrine for allergic reactions; or analgesics.
An automatic injector apparatus commonly includes an elongated tubular casing and a medicine "container". The medicine container contains a dose of fluid medication. Also included is a needle for injecting the medication into the user. The injector further has a trigger mechanism which causes the needle to penetrate the user's tissue and inject the medication from the container.
Typical automatic injection apparatuses have a drawback in that they administer only a single dose of medication and are not reusable. After this single use, the entire apparatus is discarded. This results in high cost and waste.
Another drawback is the relatively short storage life of some medications. The storage life of a medication is generally less than the useful life of the automatic injection apparatus. Automatic injectors are expected to be stored for long periods of time, often 3 years or more. Unfortunately, many medications do not have a comparable storage life. For example, some medications have storage lives of only approximately 1-2 years or less. Such medicines can thus become ineffective before the injector is used, resulting in the wasteful disposal of unused but fully medicated injection apparatuses. This also contributes to high costs.
The inability of automatic injection apparatus to be reloaded causes substantial addition costs in other ways. Storage of integrated one use automatic injections is made more complicated and stock must be carefully inventoried and tracked for dates of use. Medicines needing or best stored under particular conditions, such as refrigeration, are typically unavailable due to the bulk of the injection apparatus. Medicines used in automatic emergency injectors are also inventoried in addition to inventories of medications used in hospitals. These factors become particularly troublesome and costly for the military because of the logistical problems, storage considerations, and tremendous quantities involved.
Another very serious limitation is that prior automatic injectors are not capable of manual injection in instances where they fail. Prior injectors are manufactured as an integrated injection system that provides one dose of medicine. Then, the injection system is discarded. If the firing mechanism of such an injector fails, then the injection is not administered, and the user does not get to the needed medication. The internal components of such injection systems are not capable of being used manually. Thus the injectors pose a risk that due to mechanical failure medication will not be capable of administration.
Prior injectors are manufactured as a single, integrated system that provides one application of medicine, and is then discarded. However, if the trigger, firing, syringe or other mechanism fails and the injection is not administered, the user cannot access the medication contained within the sealed unitary casing. Even if the user can get at the medicine vial, the internal components are not capable of being used manually to effect an injection of the medicine. This inability to use internal components of some prior art designs results from the fact that there is e
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Hafer Robert A.
Racunas Robert V.
Washington Biotech Corporation
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