Safety Intravenous Cannula with Locking Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current intravenous cannulas lack safety features to prevent needle stick injuries during accidental exposure before proper disposal, posing a high risk of communicable disease transmission and significant costs.
Innovation Solution
A safety intravenous cannula design featuring a catheter assembly with a needle hub and a safety device that includes locking elements. The safety device engages with an annular groove on the body member, forming a locking engagement that secures the needle within the safety device upon retraction, preventing exposure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional intravenous cannula without safety features is used, then the device structure remains simple and easy to manufacture, but needle stick injuries can occur causing high risk of communicable disease transmission and significant costs
Solution Approach 1:
The safety device is nested within the catheter assembly structure. The elongated tubular member is positioned within the catheter, and the safety device is integrated into the body member, creating a compact nested configuration that provides safety functionality without significantly increasing overall device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The safety device acts as an intermediary component between the needle and the user. When the needle is retracted, the locking elements engage with the annular groove to prevent the needle from being accidentally exposed or stuck, serving as a protective mediator that eliminates direct contact between the sharp needle and potential sources of injury
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a safety device with locking elements is added to the cannula, then needle stick injuries are prevented by arresting the needle within the safety device, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The safety device is designed as a separate, modular component with distinct locking elements that can be manufactured independently and then assembled onto the catheter assembly. This segmentation allows for specialized manufacturing of the safety mechanism while keeping the rest of the cannula production processes unchanged
Solution Approach 2:
The locking elements are designed to automatically engage with the annular groove through the natural retraction motion of the needle. The safety device operates automatically without requiring additional manual activation or complex control mechanisms, reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining effective safety functionality
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a cannula comprising a catheter assembly, a body member, an elongated tubular member, a needle hub, and a safety device fixedly connected to a distal end of the elongated tubular member and releasably connected to the body member. The body member includes an annular groove, and the safety device comprises locking elements. When the needle is retracted from the catheter assembly after puncturing the vein of a patient, the body member is disengaged by disengaging the locking elements from the annular groove, thereby separating the safety device from the body member after the needle has been arrested within safety device. The locking elements are solid spherical elements of stainless steel material.