PASSIVE SAFETY NEEDLE SHIELD
A passive safety needle shield is provided. The needle shield comprises a base fixed to a proximal end of a needle, and an enclosure housing initially disposed at a distal end of the needle and enclosing the end of the needle. A hinged arm connects the base and the enclosure housing. The enclosure housing is slidable along the needle length, and the hinged arm flexes to permit the enclosure housing to move along the needle as the needle is inserted into a user, thereby hiding the needle end, and providing support to the needle to avoid bends or buckles in the needle. The hinged arm is biases in the initial position so that the enclosure housing returns to the end of the needle as the needle is withdrawn.
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This application is a continuation patent application of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/498,559, filed Nov. 27, 2019, which is a U.S. 371 National Stage of PCT International Application No. PCT/US2018/028394, filed Apr. 19, 2018, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/488,006 filed Apr. 20, 2017, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is directed to safety devices for needles, and in particular to a novel needle shield.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONSafety is an important consideration in the manufacture of needles, particularly for medical use. Another consideration is comfort level, or reducing the pain associated with using a needle. Often a small gauge needle is used for small dose deliveries of medication in order to minimize discomfort. However, smaller gauge needles are more prone to bending, buckling and kinking during use due if the insertion force is not coaxial with the needle.
In certain situations, as illustrated in
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention overcome the deficiencies discussed above, and provide additional benefits by providing a retraction mechanism and needle enclosure to displace the load on a needle and guide the needle during injection to help prevent bending and/or buckling. Additional embodiments prevent a needle from being used more than once by locking when the retraction mechanism returns to the pre-injection state. Embodiments of the present invention also address the preference of users to not see a needle enter their skin by enclosing the needle so that the user does not see the needle penetrating the skin.
Further details, features and advantages of designs of the invention result from the following description of embodiment examples in reference to the associated drawings.
Throughout the drawings, like reference numbers should be understood to represent like elements, features and structures.
An exemplary embodiments of the present invention is illustrated in
Embodiments of the invention may advantageously be integrated with any injection product and provides a single-sided patient end safety that hides needle exposure throughout the entirety of the injection process.
The needle shield 300 is preferably formed from a preloaded plastic mold that converts preloaded potential energy into kinetic energy when force is applied to it during the skin penetration. This converted energy allows the shield to auto-retract into its original position to prevent any accidental needle sticks once the user pulls out the needle. Additionally, an auto-locking mechanism may be incorporated into the device to prevent re-use of needles on which the shield 300 is installed. The auto-locking mechanism advantageously activates once the device is retracted to its original position after a first insertion to prevent reuse and contamination.
Additional exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in
Needle shield 600 is illustrated in
Needle shield 700 is illustrated in
Another needle shield embodiment 800 is illustrated in
A locking mechanism for use with the needle shields described herein will now be described in connection with
The above describe embodiments are intended to be illustrative of embodiments of the invention without being limiting. Those of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that various changes and modifications to the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as described and illustrated herein.
Claims
1-10. (canceled)
11. A safety shield for a needle, comprising,
- a base member fixed to a proximal end of a needle;
- an enclosure housing movably connected at a distal end of the needle and slidable along the length of the needle, the enclosure housing adapted to contact the skin of a patient, and guide the needle into the patient during insertion of the needle into the patient; and
- an arm hinged at a proximal end to the base member and extending axially from the needle, the arm configured to connect the base member to the enclosure housing at a distal end of the arm, the arm being configured to bias the enclosure housing towards the distal end of the needle.
12. The safety shield of claim 11, wherein the hinged arm and enclosure housing are configured to displace a buckling load off of the needle to prevent it from bending during use.
13. The safety shield of claim 11, wherein the hinged arm and enclosure housing are configured to guide the needle in a straight line through the enclosure housing.
14. The safety shield of claim 11, wherein the enclosure housing is configured to slide down the needle towards the base member as the needle penetrates the skin.
15. The safety shield of claim 14, wherein the hinged arm is configured to bend to accommodate the sliding motion of the enclosure housing along the needle.
16. The safety shield of claim 15, wherein the hinged arm pushes the enclosure housing back to the end of the needle using an elastic force of the hinged arm as the patient pulls the needle out of the skin.
17. The safety shield of claim 11, further comprising a locking mechanism to prevent the enclosure housing from sliding proximally from the distal end of the needle after a use.
18. The safety shield of claim 11, wherein the safety shield is formed in a single shot molding process.
19. The safety shield of claim 11, wherein the safety shield comprises plastic.
20. A safety shield for a needle, comprising,
- a base member fixed to a proximal end of a needle;
- an enclosure housing movably connected at a distal end of the needle and slidable along the length of the needle, the enclosure housing adapted to contact the skin of a patient, and guide the needle into the patient during insertion of the needle into the patient; and
- an arm configured to hinge at approximately a midpoint thereof and extending axially from the needle, the arm configured to couple at a proximal end to the base member and at a distal end to the enclosure housing, the arm being configured to bias the enclosure housing towards the distal end of the needle.
21. The safety shield of claim 20, wherein the enclosure housing is configured to slide down the needle towards the base member as the needle penetrates the skin.
22. The safety shield of claim 21, wherein the hinged arm is configured to bend to accommodate the sliding motion of the enclosure housing along the needle.
23. The safety shield of claim 22, wherein the hinged arm pushes the enclosure housing back to the end of the needle using an elastic force of the hinged arm as the patient pulls the needle out of the skin.
24. The safety shield of claim 20, further comprising a locking mechanism to prevent the enclosure housing from sliding proximally from the distal end of the needle after a use.
25. The safety shield of claim 20, wherein the safety shield is formed in a single shot molding process.
26. The safety shield of claim 20, wherein the safety shield comprises plastic.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 10, 2022
Publication Date: May 11, 2023
Applicant: Embecta Corp. (Andover, MA)
Inventor: Peter Aziz Girgis (East Brunswick, NJ)
Application Number: 18/054,343