Safety Catheter Needle with Rotating Tip Lock
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing safety catheters either fail to completely prevent accidental punctures and fluid contamination of health professionals, suffer from design complexities and high costs, or lose protection over time, and often require manual activation or have structural issues that lead to fluid leakage and accessibility risks.
Innovation Solution
A passive safety catheter design featuring a containment body with a rotating cylindrical element that automatically locks the cannula tip within a hydrophobic filter system, ensuring the tip remains inaccessible and contained, even after use, using a simple and cost-effective assembly with minimal components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If resilient means are used to immobilize the cannula, then the cannula is contained within the protective body, but the excessive retraction speed causes fluid splashes and high noise and vibration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a dynamic braking mechanism where the resilient means is equipped with a friction element that contacts the cannula during retraction. This creates controlled friction to reduce retraction speed, preventing fluid splashes and minimizing noise and vibration while maintaining reliable cannula containment throughout the process.
2Reliability
If the protection system uses a moving rotating element, then the tip is contained, but the construction becomes complex and costly requiring special catheter holders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the rotating element from the catheter holder structure and relocates it to the protection system itself. This allows the catheter holder to remain simple and compatible with existing designs, while the protection system independently provides the containment function through its own integrated rotating mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The protection system with the rotating element is designed to be a universal component that can function with standard catheter holders. The rotating mechanism serves multiple purposes: containing the tip, enabling controlled retraction, and preventing accidental punctures, all while maintaining compatibility with existing catheter holder designs.
3Ease of manufacture
If the protection system has lateral or frontal openings, then the structure is simple, but body fluid can emerge and contact the health professional
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible diaphragm or membrane that selectively covers the openings in the protection system. This flexible barrier prevents body fluid from emerging through the openings while maintaining the simple structural design, allowing the protection system to remain easy to manufacture while effectively blocking fluid leakage paths.
4Ease of operation
If the cannula tip is exposed after use, then the health professional can access it, but accidental puncture and contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary containment where the protection system is pre-positioned to cover the cannula tip before use. During the procedure, the tip remains accessible through controlled openings or removable covers. After use, the system automatically or manually activates to fully contain the tip, preventing accidental puncture while maintaining operational accessibility during the procedure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides enhanced safety by preventing cannula tip contact and fluid leakage, maintaining protection over time, and simplifying manufacturing and use while reducing the risk of infectious disease transmission and fluid exposure for healthcare professionals.
Implementation Method 1
cannula (11) having a bevel (11C) close to its tip (10); said moving element (37) being capable of rotating within said containment body (23) because of the interference between said bevel (11C) and said moving element (37) during the stage in which said cannula (11) is extracted from said catheter holder (3)
Implementation Method 2
containing said tip (10) within said containment body (23) after said cannula (11) has been drawn out from said catheter holder (3), so as to prevent a health professional from coming into contact with said tip (10) and to prevent body fluid from passing through
Data Source
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AI summary
A safety catheter needle comprises a cannula removably inserted in a catheter and associated with a cannula holder, said catheter associated with a catheter holder being in turn removably attached to said cannula holder, the cannula having a distal extremity or tip comprising a deformed part and provided with a protection device associated with the catheter holder movably containing the cannula and moving within the catheter holder when the cannula is drawn out from the catheter. The protection device comprises a principal body containing a moving body rotating about an axis at right angles to a longitudinal axis of the cannula and capable of interacting with a fixed part of the catheter holder while the cannula is being drawn out, said interaction bringing about rotation of the rotating moving body within the principal body and immobilising the distal extremity of the cannula within the former.