AU597839B2

AU597839B2 - A blood bag package assembly

Info

Publication number: AU597839B2
Application number: AU19182/88A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Yutaka Matsuda; Yoshinori Ohachi; Yukihiro Ohnaka
Original assignee: Terumo Corp
Current assignee: Terumo Corp
Priority date: 1987-05-28
Filing date: 1988-07-19
Publication date: 1990-06-07
Anticipated expiration: 2008-07-19
Also published as: DE3878690T2; EP0359820A4; WO1988009296A1; DE3878690D1; AU1918288A; JPS63294858A; KR890701447A; EP0359820B1; EP0359820A1

Description

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d COMMONWEALTH AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE Class r: tion-Lodged:Thsdcxetaoin Accepted: TW3 Lmments conain um Published: SWUM~o 49.

ad In oorm~t fair prntwn.

~39 Form It. Class App~ication Numbe Lodgec Complete Specifica Priority Related Art: 1:1

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Name of Applicant: Address oi Applicant: Actual Inventor: TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT TERUMO KABUSHIKI KAISHA 44-1, 2-chome, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan YUTAKA MATSUDA YUKIHIRO CHNAKA YOSIITNORI OHAGHI Address for Service: Complete Specification SANDERCOCK, SMlITH BEADOLE 207 Riversdaie Road, Box;.410) Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122

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for the invintion entitled: A1 Llod ihtc-p'Ccsj sQrby The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: i -1ao 0 *o 0

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£4 4 4 4 (4 4* 0 O+ 4 This invention relates to a package for liquid containers, blood bags, and more particularly, to blood Ct b12oS aSeINhl a iqui n'r. package/ which can prevent a liquid (moisture) from condensing on the inside of the bag.

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, for preserving blood bags it has been the practice to lay Japanese paper as a water absorp- 10 tion sheet beneath the blood bags to absorb the condensed water droplets. The blood bag is made of a soft plastic material permeable by water vapor, water vapor penetrates the blood bag as condensed moisture inside a sealed container package due to, for example, a difference in temperature between the sealed container package and the environment. The amount of condensed water can be much as 8 to 10 cc in the case of a single container package, in which five sets of 200-cc blood bags (a total blood content amounting 140 cc) ere 20 sealed. Heretofore, Japanese paper has been used by laying it beneath the bottom of the blood bag to absorb the condensed moisture. Japanese paper, however, has a poor water absorption property and can not absorb water unless it is contacted by water, that is, it can not absorb water in the state of vapor, and it is only when this vapor condenses, that the paper is sufficiently 11 able to absorb water.

I i i L _i _C: NO ATTESTATION OR SEAL REQUIRED Signature(s) of declarant(s).

Masatoshi TWADE, General Manager of Patent Division SANDERCOCK, SMITH BEADLE P.O. Box 410, Hawthorn 3122, Australia Telephone (+613) 619 2099 Telex: 34491 S~ndpat Telefax No, +61 3 819 1334 Group 3 To: Cormmissioner of Patents, Australia 3 2 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 '4000 26 27 28 29 31 too* 32 to, 34 36 37 IA& 38 Further, the Japanese paper lacks a water-retaining capacity i.e. it lacks an absorbent quality. Therefore, water once absorbed by t" paper can readily dissipate due to a temperature rise or like cause. Therefore, an oversaturation state is produced inside the blood bag, and evaporation, dissipation, and condensation of water repeatedly take place. Further, the surface of the blood bag which is not in contact with Japanese paper has no ability whatsoever to absorb water. Therefore, affixing labels indicating the blood type and other data to the bags is difficult due to the moisture which collects on the surface of the blood bags when collecting blood. Further, a label once applied is liable to fall off. There is a further problem in that water that has not been absorbed by the Japanese paper beneath the blood bags in the package may be mistaken as leakage of the blood bag content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is to provide a liquid container package, which can maintain an adequate humidity therein and which can also prevent moistur? from condensing on the inside of the bag.

To attain the above object of the invention, there is provided a blood bag package assembly comprising: a) one or more blood bags having a wall permeable to water vapor and containing a liquid; b) a package for hermetically enclosing said one or more blood bags; and C) a humidity control member disposed betweenl said blood bag(s) and said package, and comprising: i) a water and water vapor-permeable sheet; and ii) a resinous material h a v ing a wa t er va po r absorption property, a water absorption property and a water vapor dissipation property, and enclosed by said water and water vapor-permeable sheet; an amount of said humidity control member being sufficient to maintain at all times a saturation state inside the blood bag package assembly.

0 0 900319,!mwspe. 012 ,blood .cla, rri~ 3- 1 It is one feature of the invention that the humidity 2 control member has properties which are highly absorbent of 3 water as well as water vapor and that it also has a water 4 vapor dissipation property, and that this humidity control member is used in lieu of Japanese paper which has a poor 6 water absorption property and has substantially no water 7 vapor absorption property.

8 It is another feature of this invention that the 9 humidity control member can be used in a versatile fashion, it can be disposed on the bottom, the side walls or 11 the entire inner wall surfaces of a liquid container 12 package.

13 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 14 This invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction 16 with the accompanying drawings, in which: t c 17 Fig. I is a sectional view showing a relative humidity 18 control member accommodated in a liquid container package 19 according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of t 0¢u C i0 9w o, d a 41 4 t 4 I *t 4 -4use of the humidity control member; Figs. 3 and 4 are perspective views, each showing a different example of use of the humidity control member; 5 Fig. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing the liquid container package according to the invention; Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the assembled form of the liquid container package shown in Fig. and Fig. 7 is a perspective view showing a prior art liquid container package.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The invention will now be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing a humidity control member accommodated as a liquid or water absorber in a liquid container package according to the invention. Resinous material 2 having a water vapor absorp-tion property, a water absorption property, and a water vapor dispersion perperty is provided in an embossed form between two water- and water vaporpermeable sheets 3 (such as paper sheets). Resinous material 2 has a water absorption capacity of 10 to 1,000 cc, preferably 100 to 800 cc, more preferably 300 to 700 cc, per one gram. Such a water-absorptive resinous material as noted above is well-known; for F .44 *1

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5 example, an acrylic acid resin mainly composed of potassium polyacrylate (marketed under a trade name "Arasoap 800A" by Arakawa Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.).

This humidity control member has a mesh-like structure constituted by resinous material 2, water being trapped in the mesh structure. It can cope with a temperature rise or like changes to maintain a saturation state inside the package by releasing water vapor.

When water vapor is increased beyond the saturation state, it positively absorbs moisture. When such humidity control member is provided in the sealed liquid container package, water generated due to various causes is absorbed and dispersed by the resin particles, so that it is possible to maintain at all time the saturation state inside the sealed liquid container package.

In other words, it is possible to suppress dispersion of water by evaporation from the liquid container such as a blood bag and also suppress generation of water drops.

Embodiment Now, an embodiment of the invention and a comparative example will be described with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a humidity control member for a package for blood bags (liquid containers) according to the invention. Reference numeral 1 designates the humidity control member. Humidity control member 1 consists of I I 4.I t

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n-l: i w- lL1191 ~11_ i ;1 j w~v~ 6 A 4.

4 0 4~ 0 an embossing of a pair of slightly water- and water vapor permeable paper sheets 3 with resinous material 2 being disposed between the paper sheets 3. Resinous material 2 has a water vapor absorption property, a water absorption property, and a water vapor dissipation property; for instance, it may be a highly water-absorptive acrylic acid resin (in the form of particles mainly composed of potassium polyacrylate [available under a trade name "Arasoap 800A" by Arakawa Kagaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.,] with a water absorption capacity of 950 cc/g). Humidity control member 1 contains g of the highly water-absorptive resin per 1 m 2 Fig. 2 shows how the humidity control member according to the invention is used in an embossed form.

As is shown, molding 4 of humidity control member 1, which has substantially the same shape as package A, is prepared and disposed in package A. After humidity control molding 4 has been set in package A, blood bags (not shown) are enclosed in package A, which is then sealed with lap B.

The method of disposing the humidity control member in package A as shown in Fig. 2 is by no means limitated. For example, it is possible to use humidity control molding member 5 as shown in Fig. 3, or disposed relative humidity control molding member 6 only on the bottom of package as shown in Fig. 4.

The shapes of humidity control molding members 4 hi i o a 0 09 0 0 0 o 0 0a 0 0 Q 0 006 0 0 I I o o o

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0 0 0 0 4 8« 00 4 r t 4

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0:000: 4 r j 7 to 6 obtained from humidity control member 1 are by no means limitated, and member 1 may be processed to any shape and size which conforms to package A.

Fig. 5 shows an example of packing blood bags (not shown) by using a package as shown in Fig. 2. As shown, this package is formed by using two humidity control members 4 as shown in Fig. 2. More particularly, humidity control members 41 and 42 are set in respective packages A 1 and A 2 Then, after setting the blood bags 10 in packages A 1 and A 2 packages A 1 and A 2 are sealed with respective laps B 1 and B 2 Thereafter, packages A 1 and A 2 with the blood bags sealed therein are overlaid, face-to-face, with laps B 1 and B 2 and then their edges are heat-sealed together, thus completing the package as shown in Fig. 6.

Packages A 1 and A 2 each have a volume of 65 mm by 105 mm by 180 mm. When each of packages A 1 and A 2 contains five sets of blood containers with 200-cc of collected blood (a total liquid content of 140 cc), it suitably contains 0.05 to 5 g, preferably 0.1 to 2 g, of the highly water-absorptive resin. If the resin is excessively contained therein, the moisture in package A is excessively absorbed so that the blood bag content eventually begins to lack water content. If the resin is insufficiently contained therein, on the other hand, failure of the resin to sufficiently absorb the moisture is liable.

j i! i TI8 A temperature cycle test was conducted on a liquid container package consisting of two packages A, and A 2 with blood bags sealed therein and sealed together, face-to-face, with laps B 1 and B 2 The test was conducted by transferring the package, every 3 hours, between a temperature controller at 60 0 C and a refrigerator at 6 0 C and repeating this cycle ten times, and subsequently checking the extent of wetting to the surface of the blood bags. A like temperature cycle test was conducted under the same conditions on a package, which was formed in the same manner as the package shown in Fig. 6, except that conventional Japanese paper (or Japanese art paper) was used in lieu of humidity control member 4 according to the invention and was disposed under the bottom of the individual blood containers.

With the package according to the invention, the surface of the blood bags on the upper side of humidity control member 4 was proven to be only slightly wet, and the blood bag surface on the lower side of humidity control member 4 was perfectly dry. With the contrasting package formed by using Japanese paper, the blood bag surface on the upper side of the Japanese paper was considerably wet, and the blood bag surface on the lower side of the Japanese paper was proven to be extremely wet.

It was thus confirmed that the wetting of the blood

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4 0 1 h 9er 4 I Ii lil iI 4 4 44 4 41 4: 4 bag surface can be extremely remedied in cases where humidity control member 4 is used as compared to the case where the Japanese paper was used.

As has been described in the foregoing, according to the invention, it is possible to maintain the saturation state of humidity in a sealed package containing blood bags or like liquid containers. It is thus possible to prevent water vapor from condensing inside the package as well as to suppress the dispersion of water content from the liquid container. Further, since the liquid container surface i not wet, a label indicating the blood type or like data can be reliably applied to the liquid container surface.

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.1 I I The claims form part of the disclosure of this specification.

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Claims

1. A blood hag package assembly comprising: a) one or more blood bogs having a wall permeable to water vapor cnd containing a liquid; b) a package for hermetically enclosing said one or more blood bags; and C) a humidity control member disposed between said blood bag(s) and said package, and comprising: i) a water and water vapor-permeable sheet; and ii) a resinous material h a v ing a water va po r absorption property, a water absorption property and a water vapor dissipation property, and enclosed by said water and water vapor-permeable sheet; an amount of said humidity control member being sufficient to maintain at all times a saturation state inside the blood bag package assembly.

2. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said resinous material is in the form of resin particles.

3. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 2 wherein the water absorption capacity of said resin particles is 10 to 1,000 cc/g.

4. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 3 wherein the water absorption capacity of said resin particles is 100 to 800 cc/g.

5. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 4 wherein the water absorption capacity of said resin particles is 300 to 700 cc/g.

6. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said resin particles are contained in a quantity such that the liquid container surface is not substantially wetted and that the water content is not excessively absorbed in the liquid container content.

7. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said humidity control member is disposed on the bottom of said package.

8. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said humidity control member is disposed on the 0949 0 4000 0449 o 0 4 00 6 CI 0 C 4 CSI~ C 14CC 41 1 CL t1 A4TV 90 0319,!mwspe.012,blood.cla, 11 bottom and side walls of said package.

9. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said humidity control member is disposed on substantially the entire inner wall surfaces of said package.

The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said resin particles are contained by 20 g per 1 mm 2 of said humidity control member.

11. The blood bag package assembly according to claim 1 wherein said resinous material consist of an acrylic acid resin mainly composed of potassium polyacrylate.

12. The blood bag package assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1 to 6. DATED THIS 19th March, 1990 SMITH SHELSTON BEADLE Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia. Patent Attorneys for the Applicant TERUMO KABUSHIKI KAISHA I I it 900319,!mwspe.012,blood.cla, C- AI