Skin Compression Insertion Device for Glucose Sensor Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional insertion devices for in-vivo glucose sensors often struggle to anchor sensors reliably in subcutaneous fatty tissue while minimizing pain and ensuring precise measurements, as they typically rely on simple skin placement and vertical or slanted needle insertion, which may lead to injuries to muscular tissue.
Innovation Solution
The insertion device prepares the skin by deforming it to create a sloping surface, allowing the needle to penetrate at a steep angle, primarily vertically, into the fatty tissue, using pressure areas arranged at different heights to compress the skin and tissue, facilitating easier and safer insertion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the insertion needle is inserted vertically or at a slanted angle into subcutaneous fatty tissue using simple skin placement, then the device structure remains simple, but the risk of injury to muscular tissue increases and sensor placement reliability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The insertion device performs preliminary compression of the skin and subcutaneous fatty tissue before needle insertion. This pre-compression creates a compressed tissue zone that guides the needle and prevents it from penetrating too deeply into muscular tissue, thereby improving sensor placement reliability without complicating the overall device structure
Solution Approach 2:
The device changes the physical state of the skin and underlying tissue by applying compression force, transforming the tissue from its normal relaxed state to a compressed state. This parameter change in tissue density and geometry enables safer needle insertion at controlled angles while maintaining simple device architecture
2Measurement precision
If the insertion needle penetrates deeper into fatty tissue to ensure reliable sensor placement, then sensor placement precision improves, but the pain experienced during insertion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The device compresses the skin and subcutaneous tissue before needle insertion, creating a compressed zone that allows the needle to reach the desired depth more easily. This preliminary compression reduces the resistance encountered during insertion, thereby reducing pain while still achieving precise sensor placement in the fatty tissue
Solution Approach 2:
By changing the tissue parameters through compression, the device creates a more favorable insertion environment. The compressed tissue has altered mechanical properties that reduce insertion resistance and pain, while still allowing the needle to reach the precise depth required for accurate sensor placement
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the skin is compressed to create a sloping surface for needle insertion, then the risk of muscular tissue injury decreases, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The insertion device is segmented into functional components: a compression element that applies force to the skin, a support element that maintains the compressed state, and a needle insertion mechanism. This segmentation allows the device to create the necessary sloping surface through compression while keeping each component simple and the overall structure manageable
Solution Approach 2:
The device performs the complex task of creating a sloping surface through simple preliminary compression of the skin. This pre-compression action generates the geometric configuration needed for safe needle insertion without requiring complex mechanical structures, thereby reducing the risk of muscular tissue injury while maintaining device simplicity
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
This approach reduces the risk of injury to muscular tissue and enhances the reliability and precision of sensor placement by ensuring the needle penetrates along a greater length into fatty tissue, while also allowing for easier removal of the device and handling of the sensor patch.
Implementation Method 1
the skin in the neighborhood of the recess and the fatty tissue thereunder are compressed to a greater extent in the second pressure area than in the first pressure area
Data Source
AI summary
An insertion device with an underside for placing on the skin of a patient, which has a recess for an insertion needle. The insertion device has means for forming a skin surface rising like a step or slope and facing towards the recess, preferably bearing on the recess. The means for forming the step or slope may include first and second pressure areas for pressing the skin with the recess for the needle located between the first and second pressure areas. The device may be configured whereby a downwardly extending cutting plane, in which the insertion needle lies, intersects the first pressure area in a first line and the second pressure area in a second line, and wherein the first line in the vicinity of the recess extends at a greater height than the second line. At least one of the two pressure areas may be a strip.