Mixing vial

Abstract

A mixing vial having a hollow interior chamber with a tubular portion having distal and proximal open ends and a stopper positioned in sealing relationship in the tubular portion, the stopper having a hollow interior chamber with an open end and a dislodgeable plug positioned in and sealing the open end.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 62 / 441,431, filed Jan. 1, 2017 by John Scott Keadle, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This application relates to chemical vials. More particularly this application relates to medical and dental vials for storage, mixing and delivery of drugs such as buffered anesthetic solutions.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]For various reasons, some drugs must be stored and transported in two parts, and then mixed together just prior to administration. For example, steroid drugs in powder form are sometimes mixed with various vehicles just prior to injection and local anesthetics are sometimes mixed with NaHCO3 buffering solution just prior to injection.[0004]In addition, some drugs require agitation immediately prior to injection, and therefore require headspace for effective agitation, while at the same time being susceptible...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a mixing vial that has a hollow chambered vial stopper with a removable plug. This plug can be dislodged to allow the contents of the stopper chamber and the vial chamber to mix or to agitate the drug in the headspace. The technical effect of this invention is the ability to easily and quickly mix different substances in a controlled and safe manner.

Problems solved by technology

In addition, some drugs require agitation immediately prior to injection, and therefore require headspace for effective agitation, while at the same time being susceptible to oxidative degradation which occurs during storage from the gas in the headspace.

This acid solution is painful to the patient when injected, and is just one more reason that people don't like getting shots at the dentists' or physicians' office.

Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that raising the pH of the anesthetic to a pH closer to neutral just prior to injection (“buffering”) greatly decreases the pain associated with injection, as well as the latency of the anesthetic effect.

Because of this, many inventors over several decades have attempted to help make buffering a widespread practice in both dentistry and medicine, but at present no method has been satisfactory for a number of reasons.

In addition, the mixing protocol is subject to human error and has resulted in protocol breaches, including improper drug ratios, sterility breaches, and intentional “re-use” of single-patient drug vials on other patients, with resulting adverse medical outcomes.

This method is also somewhat cumbersome, time-consuming, and uneconomical.

However, despite the risk and the cost in time and money, many physicians buffer their anesthetic, as it makes a significant difference in the patient's comfort when performed properly.

Both of these systems add considerable time and expense to the procedure.

The ongoing product cost per injection of the commercially available systems is many times that of an unbuffered protocol.

This is time consuming, expensive, and its use is subject to operator error and breaches of sterile and pharmacological protocol.

This system requires that each cartridge be separately loaded with NaHCO3, which is time consuming, and in some states legally prohibited except by licensed pharmacists.

In addition, this system causes a significant loss of available drug volume in the cartridge as well as being subject to operator error and breaches of sterile and pharmacological protocol.

In spite of their disadvantages, both systems have found a limited market, demonstrating that buffering is very desirable from both a dentist's and a dental patient's perspective.

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