Retractable Needle Injection System for Localized Drug Dispensing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hypodermic syringes deliver therapeutic agents to a single location, reducing effectiveness when targeting a collection of cells, and existing automated systems often result in undesirable distribution of agents throughout the body, especially with radioactive agents, posing risks to care providers.
Innovation Solution
A delivery system with a retractable needle that dispenses therapeutic agents along a path within the body using a pump and reservoir system, ensuring precise, localized distribution with minimal exposure to caregivers, utilizing a tubular needle-receiving member for shielding and a linear drive for controlled retraction and fluid flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a conventional hypodermic syringe is used to deliver therapeutic agents, then the agent is delivered to a single specific location, but the effectiveness is reduced when targeting a collection of cells due to transmission delays through adjacent cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the treatment approach by creating multiple injection sites within the target zone. The syringe system delivers therapeutic agents to multiple discrete locations simultaneously or sequentially, ensuring that all cells within the targeted collection receive direct treatment rather than relying on diffusion from a single point.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from single-point (0D) or line (1D) injection to area (2D) coverage by distributing injections across multiple locations within the target zone. This dimensional expansion ensures comprehensive treatment of the entire cell collection.
2Productivity
If an automated delivery system is used to provide dispersed delivery of therapeutic agents, then delivery to multiple locations is achieved, but the agent distributes throughout the body instead of remaining localized, particularly when delivered into blood flow
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by targeting injections specifically at the boundaries and within the defined limits of the target zone (such as a tumor). The system ensures that therapeutic agents are deposited only within the predetermined boundaries, maintaining high concentration where needed while preventing systemic distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potential harm of automated delivery into benefit by using automated control to precisely limit injection depth and location. The automated system prevents over-injection into blood vessels or surrounding healthy tissue, turning the risk of misdelivery into assurance of accurate, localized treatment.
3Productivity
If radioactive therapeutic agents are used, then treatment effectiveness is improved, but exposure to care providers increases and must be minimized by limiting time and volume
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by delivering only the minimum necessary volume of radioactive therapeutic agent required to treat the target zone. By injecting small volumes at multiple locations rather than large volumes at single points, the system achieves complete coverage with reduced total radioactive material, thereby minimizing care provider exposure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts or removes the harmful radioactive component from the care provider's environment by using automated delivery to complete the procedure quickly, limiting the time duration of exposure. The system also extracts excess radioactive material by precisely controlling injection volumes to match only the treatment requirement.
4Adaptability or versatility
If manual syringe operation is used with simultaneous plunger depression and withdrawal, then dispersed delivery is attempted, but the technique is difficult to learn and ineffective for delivering proper quantities to defined boundaries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies self-service by designing an automated system that performs the complex coordinated actions of plunger depression, needle withdrawal, and positioning without requiring manual dexterity or coordination from the operator. The automated syringe system independently manages the delivery sequence, making the process easy to operate while achieving precise dispersed delivery to defined boundaries.
Data Source
AI summary
A dispensing device which disperses medicate through a needle across a zone within a body. The device includes a needle which is, during use, becomes encapsulated within a tubular needle-receiving member, a reservoir in fluid communication with the needle, positioned within the housing, and in communication with the needle, a second reservoir, a reservoir-connecting conduit in communication with the reservoir, a fluid drive in communication with the fluid in the second reservoir and in communication with the reservoir-connecting conduit, and a linear drive attached to the needle or to the needle-receiving member. The fluid drive impel fluids from the second reservoir to the reservoir-connecting conduit and thus drives the therapeutic agent from the reservoir during the linear displacement of the needle towards the housing. Fluid communication from the therapeutic agent reservoir to the needle is maintained by the tubing during operation of the linear drive.