Surgery – Instruments – Cutting – puncturing or piercing
Patent
1999-03-24
2000-07-18
Buiz, Michael
Surgery
Instruments
Cutting, puncturing or piercing
A61B 1714
Patent
active
060901241
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to skin prickers.
A small blood sample is required for analysis or testing in many medical situations. Often, it is left to the patient to draw his own sample and carry out his own test on home use equipment, and many lancet devices have been devised to make the procedure simple, safe and as painless as possible. Commonly, there is a firing mechanism which can be used many times, but at each use it has to be loaded with a fresh lancet, which is thrown away once the sample has been taken. There are obvious dangers in reusing a lancet.
To be throwaway items, the lancets have to be cheap. The usual form is a needle encased in a generally cylindrical plastics body, leaving just the tip exposed when an integrally moulded tear-off cap is removed. Such lancets, although they may conform to this general pattern, are not uniformly sized, and there can even be differences in a batch from the same manufacturer.
A common way of holding the lancet in the firing device is to press its rear end into a socket at the forward end of a spring loaded holder which is released by a trigger mechanism. The press fit should hold the lancet secure during use, but due to the variations in size mentioned above, this is not always the case. Sometimes the lancets are loose, and sometimes they are too large to be pressed into the sockets, at least not without damage or permanent distension.
It is the aim of this invention to provide a simple skin pricker which can accommodate to variations in lancet size.
According to the present invention there is provided a skin pricker having a body containing a spring loaded lancet carrier releasable from a rearward position to cause the lancet tip to project momentarily from the leading end of the body, wherein the lancet carrier has a forwardly open socket into which the rear end of a lancet is plugged, and wherein the spring loading is a coil spring part of which embraces the socket normally to constrict it to a minimum diameter but which allows the socket to expand to receive the rear end of a lancet with a diameter greater than said minimum.
Thus, a lancet can be pressed into the socket and it will expand as necessary to accommodate it, the spring ensuring that it retains a firm grip. The mouth of the socket may be flared to ease entry and generate the initial expansion.
In one preferred form the socket has a longitudinal split from mouth to base, and at the base on either side of this split the socket wall is cut away circumferentially so that there are two wings which can spread to widen the split. There may be more than one such split around the circumference of the socket.
The lancet carrier preferably has a portion extending rearwardly of the socket with a detent for retention by a release mechanism when the carrier is moved to its rearward position. This release mechanism may include two rearwardly projecting figures internal of the body and flanking said portion to co-operate with opposed detents, and a pressure element at the rear of the body to co-operate with the fingers and, when pressed, to spread them to disengage the detents.
The lancet carrier will generally be of moulded plastics, in which case said portion may have forwardly and outwardly projecting fingers which form spring elements that co-operate with an abutment internal of the body to cushion the end of the forward stroke of the lancet carrier and promote the return of the lancet tip within the body. The rear end of the coil spring conveniently acts against the forward side of said abutment.
For a better understanding of this invention, one embodiment will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:
FIG. 1 is a side view of a skin pricker,
FIG. 2 is another side view of the skin pricker, seen in the direction A of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal section of the pricker on the line III--III of FIG. 2, before firing,
FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section of the pricker, apart form the lancet holder which is seen in side view, on the line IV--IV of FIG. 3, but a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4416279 (1983-11-01), Lindner et al.
patent: 5464418 (1995-11-01), Schraga
patent: 5540709 (1996-07-01), Ramel
Bui Vy Q.
Buiz Michael
Owen Mumford Limited
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