Safety needle cartridge system

Abstract

A needle protection safety package, instead of being enclosed in a pouch or other containment wrappings, has fitted thereto at respective ends thereof caps or sheaths so that both the needle and the end to which a syringe is adapted to mate remain enclosed and sterile. Such an arrangement enables easy transport of the safety needle package and provides convenience for the user at the same time. The safety package is further designed to prevent burring of the tip of the needle as the cap or sheath is removed from the needle portion of the package. A further embodiment of the safety package incorporates a locking mechanism which prevents contact between the needle and the housing as the housing is pivoted to envelop the needle after use.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to needle protection devices and more particularly to a convenient to use safety needle package.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONIn a medical emergency, time is of the essence. For example, medical personnel have to quickly assemble a syringe to a needle for injecting medicant to a patient. With the recent onslaught of contagious diseases, to safeguard medical personnel, and bystanders, needle protection devices have been added to prevent unwanted needle sticks. Such incorporation of needle protection devices to the needle and syringe requires additional time.A particular needle protection device having a needle integrated to a base, which in turn has connected thereto a pivotable housing, is disclosed in Landis U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,259. To maintain sterility for the device, in one of the embodiments, a frangible strip is provided to seal the housing to the base so that, in order to use the device, the frangible strip has to be peeled awa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

To provide both convenience and sterility, the present invention safety package (cartridge) has a base having a first end adapted to mate with a syringe and a second end adapted to mate with a needle. The sterile end to be mated to the syringe is enclosed by a cap, which is non-permanently fixed, as for example by stick-welding or a frangible adhesive tape, to the base such that it becomes part of the package but nonetheless can be easily twisted off. Likewise, the end adapted to mate with a needle, if no needle has already been mated thereto, is non-permanently enclosed by a cap or sheath to the base, as for example also by stick-welding or a frangible adhesive tape, so as to be easily twisted off. If a needle has already been mated or molded to the second end, to maintain the needle sterile before use, the needle and the end to which it is mated or molded are enclosed by a sheath, which likewise may be non-permanently fixed to the base. Again, while providing sterile integrity to the safety needle package, the sheath can nonetheless be easily twisted off when the device is to be used. The package is further configured such that the housing coupled thereto is pivotable to a position along the longitudinal axis of the needle to envelop the same, once the sheath has been removed. The housing had previously been configured to extend away from the sheath so that no additional actions are needed to pivot it out of the way to remove the sheath and use the needle. Since both ends of the safety needle package are sealingly enclosed, both the end which mates with the needle (and of course the needle if it has already been connected thereto) and the end which mates with the syringe remain sterile. Further, since no additional containment pouches or wrappings are required, the package of the present invention takes up less space and therefore more than a few of them may be carried by a user at any one time. And without having to tear a containment pouch before usage, the safety needle device of the present invention is convenient to use.

Another aspect of the present invention safety package relates to the design at the end of the base adapted to mate with a needle which provides for automatic loosening of the sheath enclosing the needle. Thus, instead of needing to apply a large force to remove the sheath from the needle, only a gentle force is required. Such design eliminates the potential burring of the tip of the needle which results from the jerking movement of the sheath as it is removed from the needle when a large force is used.

Yet a third aspect of the invention relates to the permanent retention of the housing at a position in alignment along the longitudinal axis of the needle (or the base of the cartridge) such that a used or contaminated needle is not exposed. To accomplish this end, a first embodiment uses locking means in the form of at least one hook, integral of the housing, which permanently locks onto the needle once the housing is pivoted to its alignment position, to thereby prevent relative movement between the needle and the housing. A second embodiment of this aspect of the present invention involves the cooperative mating of an opening at the lower part of the housing to a corresponding anchor at the base of the cartridge such that once the housing is pivoted to its alignment position and the anchor lockably projected into the opening, the housing is fixedly maintained at the alignment position. No hook is used in this embodiment. Such embodiment therefore prevents any contact between the contaminated needle and the housing to thereby enable less costly manufacture of smaller and / or thinner needles, and also prevent any atomizing of potential contaminated droplets of fluid collected at the tip of the needle, which could happen were the housing hook to contact and snap onto the needle as in the previous embodiment. A variant of the third aspect embodiment of the present invention provides at least two opposed openings at the bottom portion of the housing which cooperate with corresponding locking tabs extending from appropriate portions of the base such that once the housing is pivoted to the alignment position and the respective tabs snapped into the corresponding openings, the housing is locked into place at the alignment position.

It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a safety package that is both convenient to use and transport.

It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a different locking mechanism which fixedly retains the housing at a desirable position to envelop the needle.

Problems solved by technology

Such incorporation of needle protection devices to the needle and syringe requires additional time.

This embodiment does not provide a sterile luer to which the syringe is mated.

Thus, a user has to tear the pouch to get to the device.

As is well known, such pouches are oftentimes difficult to tear, particularly when they have been designed to be sufficiently strong to prevent accidental tearing.

Accordingly, precious seconds may be wasted in removing the Landis device from its containment pouch.

So, too, such pouch packages are bulky and medical personnel do not like to carry more than the minimum with them.

From experience, it has been found that, in certain circumstances, the encasement of such needle protection device in a pouch, or other types of containment wrapping, is inconvenient.

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