RU3573U1 - DEVICE FOR DESTRUCTION OF A MEDICAL NEEDLE - Google Patents

Abstract

1. A device for destroying a medical needle, comprising a housing, an input socket for introducing a needle with a stopper for the head, a cylindrical needle placement area located coaxially with the input socket, a current source connected to the first pole of the current source, an end electrode mounted for input in the placement area from the side opposite the input socket, a sealing device provided with two electrodes connected to the opposite poles of the current source, combined with the needle fixing element nti and installed together with the rest of the locking elements with a mutual offset in the direction of the axis of the zone of placement and with the possibility of entering into this zone on the site adjacent to the input socket by mutual relative movement of the device for sealing and the zone of placement at an angle of 20 - 90 <198> to the axis of this zone, characterized in that the needle-fixing elements are made in the form of metal plates facing each other with long sides mounted on a common base pairwise symmetrically relative to the plane, passing through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the direction of relative movement of this zone and the base, and spring-loaded in the direction of this plane. 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the metal plates are connected to the base by means of jumpers offset relative to the plane passing through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the direction of relative movement of this zone and the base, and the device is equipped with a rod fixed in the housing between the metal plates and the zone placing needle parallel

Description

M. cl. 5 V23H 9/00 V23K 11/12

DEVICE FOR DESTRUCTION OF A MEDICAL NEEDLE

The utility model relates to electromechanical technologies and is intended for use in medical, biological and veterinary institutions with a preventive harm that can be caused to both patients and medical personnel as a result of the reuse of used needles. A medical needle in the context of this application is understood to mean any hollow elongated metal instrument adapted for insertion at one end into a volume that is or may be a source of infection (for example, into a human or animal organism), and connected to the other through a transition element (head) with any reservoir that serves as a reservoir for liquid introduced through a needle into a specified volume or, conversely, removed from this volume. Further, a medical syringe will be considered as such a reservoir.

Known devices for the destruction of medical needles, based on passing along the entire length of the needle or through its separate sections of electric current, sufficient to heat one or more zones of the needle to a temperature exceeding it; its melting temperature (see, for example, U.S. Patent Nos. 4,877,934, В23К 11/22, 1989, 5148004, Н05В 6/14, 1992 and 5391849, В23К 11/22 and PCT application N 92/12818, В23Н 9/00, 1992).

These devices use electrodes connected to opposite poles of the current source and installed in the needle placement zone (i.e., in the volume that the needle occupies when it is inserted into the housing through the device’s input socket) or with the possibility of entering this zone.

One of the serious drawbacks of these devices is that during the destruction of the needle, evaporation of the remaining liquid in the syringe takes place with the introduction of unpleasant or toxic vapors into the surrounding space.

To eliminate this drawback, devices are proposed that provide for sealing the volume of the syringe by mechanical flattening of the needle in the area adjacent to the syringe (see, for example, patent

U.S. N 5076178, F23G 5/00, 1991). However, such devices are structurally complex and not sufficiently reliable in the case of working with needles that differ greatly in their mechanical properties.

A common drawback of these and most other known devices for the electrothermal destruction of medical needles is also the low reliability of their operation, due to the fact that unburned remains of destroyed needles contaminate the surfaces of the electrodes and clog the interelectrode space, which leads to poor contact between the needle and electrodes and creates the danger of short short circuits. To eliminate this drawback, devices are proposed for mechanical cleaning of contacting surfaces. However, these devices either have low cleaning efficiency (see, for example, US patent N 5294767, B23H 23/00, 1994), or are suitable for use only with electrodes of a special form (see, for example, US patent N 5212362, B23K 9 / 013, 1993).

Needle devices are also known, providing for electroresistive sealing of a syringe with an unburned remainder of the needle, which is carried out at the final stage of the needle destruction process (see, for example, UK application N 2211420, A61M 5/00, 1989). Among this group of devices, the closest to the proposed device is the device described in the Russian application for utility model N 94043126 dated 2.12.94 (see Fig. 1 of this application) and containing a housing, an input slot for introducing a needle with a stopper for the head, a cylindrical placement zone a needle located behind the input socket coaxially with it, a current source connected to the first pole of the current source, an end electrode installed with the possibility of input into the placement area from the side opposite the input socket, a device for sealing equipped with two electrodes connected to the opposite poles of the current source, combined with the elements fixing the needle and installed together with the rest of the fixing elements with mutual displacement in the direction of the axis of the placement zone and with the possibility of entering into this zone in the area adjacent to the input socket by mutual the relative movement of the device for sealing and the placement zone at an angle to the axis of this zone.

In this known device, the sealing device comprises four electrodes arranged in pairs on two rotary bases (rails) symmetrically to the axis of the needle placement zone. Each of these electrodes, made in the form of massive rectangular teeth, is also a needle-fixing element.

Since this device, like all other known devices of a similar purpose, provides for the sequential destruction of the needle, starting from its tip, it is obvious that it does not prevent the penetration into the environment of substances generated by the evaporation of the liquid inside the destructible needle and syringe.

contamination of the surface of the electrodes and clogging of the interelectrode space.

In this regard, the proposed utility model is primarily aimed at solving the problem of reducing the number of vapors and / or gases that are released during the destruction of the needle.

An additional technical problem, which is solved with the help of the proposed utility model, is to prevent contamination of the surface of the electrodes and clogging of the interelectrode space with unburned remains of the destructible needle.

To solve the first of these problems, a device is proposed that includes a housing, an input socket for introducing a needle with a stop for the head, a cylindrical zone for placing the needle located coaxially with the input socket, a current source connected to the first pole of the current source, an end electrode installed with the possibility of the entrance to the placement area from the side opposite the input socket, a sealing device equipped with two electrodes connected to the opposite poles of the current source, combined with the fixation needle-holding elements and installed together with other locking elements with mutual displacement in the direction of the axis of the zone of placement and with the possibility of entering into this zone on the site adjacent to the input socket by mutual relative movement of the device for sealing and the zone of placement at an angle to the axis of this zone, in which the needle-fixing elements are made in the form of metal plates facing each other with long sides mounted on a common base pairwise symmetrically relative to the plane passing to it through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the direction of relative movement of this zone and the base, and spring-loaded in the direction of this plane.

A variant of this device is also proposed in which the metal plates in the sealing device are bent in the direction of the input socket by the same angle with respect to the direction of relative movement of the needle and base placement zone and the device is equipped with a matching circuit included in the current source circuit with a key whose control circuit is connected to the output of the coincidence circuit, an inverter connected by its input to the second plate of the device for sealing, and the output to one of the inputs of the coincidence circuit, and a sensor of mutual displacement of the plates of the device for sealing, connected by its output to another input of the coincidence circuit. Using this option of the proposed device provides a technical effect of reducing the sensitivity of the device to adhesive growths on the destroyed needle.

In order to ensure the technical effect of increasing reliability, a modification of the main variant of the device is proposed, in which the metal plates are connected to the base by means of jumpers offset relative to the plane passing through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the relative movement direction of this zone and the base, and the device is equipped with a rod fixed in the housing between metal

the plates and the needle placement zone parallel to the axis of this zone, while the diameter of the rod is selected within 0.3-3 of the diameter of the specified zone, the length of the jumpers is selected to exceed the diameter of the rod, and the distance between the rod and the zone of needle placement is within 0.7-0, 9 long sides of metal plates.

In order to expand the arsenal of technical means for implementing the proposed utility model, another variant of the device is proposed, according to which the base is fixedly mounted in the housing above the input socket, the input socket is mounted on a platform mounted to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the axis of the needle placement zone, and the end electrode connected to the platform via a lever-articulated mechanism.

The utility model is illustrated in the drawing, in which: in FIG. 1 shows a general view of a first embodiment of the device; FIG. 2 illustrates the design of a sealing device; in FIG. 3 schematically shows the relative positions of the needle and the device for sealing at various points in the process of destruction of the needle; in FIG. 4 - an additional embodiment of the electrodes of the sealing device at the time of fixing the corresponding portion of the needle; in FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a device;

in FIG. 6 shows a second embodiment of a device with a fixed base.

As shown in FIG. 1, the proposed device comprises a housing 1, in the front wall of which an input socket 2 for introducing a needle 3 to be destroyed is made. The input socket 2 is a sleeve 4 provided with a stopper 5 for the head 6 of the needle connecting it with the syringe S. Behind the input socket there is a cylindrical zone 7 for the placement of the needle (shown by a dotted line). This zone has the shape of a cylinder coaxial with the inlet socket, i.e. with the axis of the sleeve 4. The diameter of the placement zone 7 corresponds to the diameter of the needle to be destroyed using the device i.e. usually 0.5-2 mm. The length of zone 7 corresponds to the length of the needle to be destroyed, i.e. equal to the length of the part that protrudes from the input socket 2 when the needle head 6 abuts against the stop 5. This length of the needle placement zone 7 is fixed by an end electrode 8 provided with a spring 9 acting on the electrode 8 in the direction of the axis of the needle placement zone 7.

A current source 10 with poles 11 and 12 is also installed in the housing 1 of the device. The first one is grounded and connected to the end electrode 8. The current source can be, for example, a battery or step-down transformer connected by its primary winding to an alternating current network.

Another part of the device is a device 13 for sealing, equipped with two electrodes 14 and 15 (see also Fig. 2, 3). The electrode 14, located on the side of the input socket 2, is connected to the first pole 11 of the current source 10, and the electrode 15 is connected to its second pole 12. The electrodes 14, 15 are made in the form of metal plates mounted on

the base 16 with a mutual offset in the direction of the axis of the zone 7 of the placement of the needle. The distance between the electrodes 14, 15 approximately corresponds to the doubled length of the maximum allowable non-burning residue of the needle remaining on the syringe Ш, and can be, for example, in the range of 2-5 mm. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the base 16 is a special lever, or bracket, the axis of rotation O2 of which is located behind the needle placement zone 7. The dimensions of the base 16 and the position of its axis of rotation are selected so that when lowering the free end of the base 16, it is possible to enter the electrodes 14, 15 into the zone 7 in the area adjacent to the input socket 2 (the direction of movement of the base 16 is shown in Fig. 1 by an arrow).

The electrodes 14, 15 of the device 13 for sealing also perform the function of fixing the needle elements. As shown in FIG. 2, two other fixing elements 17, 18 are also made in the form of metal plates mounted in a similar manner on a common base 16 pairwise symmetrical to the electrodes 14, 15 with respect to the plane AA passing through the axis O1 of the needle placement zone 7 parallel to the relative movement direction of this zone and the base 16 , i.e. direction of swing of the base (see Fig. 3). Symmetrically installed locking elements - plates 14, 17 and 15, 18 - are electrically isolated from each other. They face each other with long sides and are spring-loaded in the direction of the AA plane by means of springs 19. It is desirable that all the plates are bent in the direction of the input socket by the same angle a with respect to the direction of swing of the base 16 (this preferred embodiment of the device 13 for sealing shown in Fig. 4). The angle size a can be selected between 10 ° -30 °; however, the larger the value of this angle, the smaller the length 1 of the long side can be chosen, with which the metal plates 14, 15, 17,18 are facing each other.

In the embodiments of FIG. 2-4, the plates 14, 15, 17, 18 are mounted on the axes 20 passing through the insulating jumpers 21 and the gasket 22, fixed to the base 16 by elements 23.

The proposed device is also recommended to provide a rod 24, mounted in the housing 1 between the metal plates 14, 15, 17, 18 and the needle placement zone 7 parallel to the axis O1 of this zone. The diameter d of the rod 24 (see. Fig. 3) should be selected within 0.3-3 of the diameter of the zone 7, and the optimal value of the diameter d corresponds to 1-1.5 of the diameter of the destroyed needle. The distance r between the rod 24 and the zone 7 of the placement of the needle, it is advisable to choose close to size 1 of the long side of the metal plates 14, 15, 17, 18 (for example, components of 0.6-0.91).

As shown in FIG. 5, the proposed device also has a key 25 included in the circuit of the current source 10. If the current source is a step-down transformer, then the key 10 is advisable to install in its primary circuit. The key management circuit 26 is connected to the output of the match circuit 27. The first 28 and second 29 inputs of the matching circuit are connected respectively to the outputs of the inverter 30 and the sensor 31 of the minimum distance between the rod 24 and the base 16. The input of the inverter 30 is connected to

the plate of the first pair, which is not an electrode, i.e. to the insulated plate 17.

A feature of the embodiment of FIG. 6 is a rigid fastening of the base 16 with the device 13 for sealing. In this case, the input socket 2 is placed in the bracket 32, mounted to rotate around the axis O2, perpendicular to the axis O1 of the needle placement zone 7, and the end electrode 8 is connected to this bracket by a lever-hinge mechanism 33, spring-loaded in the direction of the input socket 2 by means of a spring 9 In both considered variants of the device, in the lower part of the housing 1, under the zone 7 of the needle placement, a collection of 34 residues of the destroyed needles can be placed.

The embodiment of the device of FIG. 1-3 works as follows. The operator brings the syringe Ш with the needle 3 fixed in it to be destroyed to the proposed device and inserts the needle 3 into the guide channel of the input socket 2 until the needle tip stops in the end electrode 8. Overcoming the resistance of the spring 9, the needle moves into the placement zone 7 until while the head

6 needles will not come into contact with stop 5, as shown in FIG. one.

After that, the operator using not shown in FIG. 1 of the lever or electric drive rotates the base 16 around its axis O2, lowering the contact elements from their initial position, shown in FIG. 3-1 onto the rod 24. The rod, overcoming the force of the springs 19, unclips the plates 14, 17 and 15, 18. As shown in FIG. 3-2, with a further lowering of the base 16, the rod 24 slides its contact areas with a wear-resistant coating on the contact surfaces of the plates 14, 15, 17, 18, cleaning them from the combustion residues of the previous needle. At the moment when the lower edges of the plates fall to the level of the zone

7 placement of the needle 3, the rod 24, due to the choice of the above ratio between the distance g and the size 1 of the contact surface of the plates, is still between the plates. Therefore, the needle 3 easily enters the gap between them, especially in the case when the diameter of the rod 24 is equal to or greater than the diameter of the needle.

After cleaning the contact surfaces, the rod 24 will come out of contact with the locking elements - plates 14, 15, 17, 18 - and will be in the space between the jumpers 20 (see Fig. 3-3). At the moment of the rod 24 coming out of contact with the fixing elements 14, 15, 17, 18, the section 3-1 of the needle 3 adjacent to its head 6 will be fixed under the action of the springs 19. At the same time, electrical contact between the needle section 3-1 and the bipolar electrodes 14, 17. Due to the pairwise symmetrical arrangement of the fixing elements relative to the plane AA, the forces with which they act on the needle 3 are mutually balanced. The relative location of the base 16 and the input socket 2 is selected so that the plates 14, 17 secure the needle 3 at a minimum distance from its head 6.

becomes zero. As a result, a positive signal appears at the corresponding input 28 of the coincidence circuit 27. The signal at the second input 29 of the matching circuit 27 is generated by the sensor 31 when the rod 24 leaves the gap between the plates 14, 15, 17, 18, i.e. It turns out to be at a minimum distance from the base 16. The coincidence circuit generates a signal in the key control circuit 26 and in the circuit not shown in FIG. 5 of the control circuit of the base drive 16. As a result, the mutual movement of the needle 3 and the locking elements 14, 15, 17, 18 is stopped. The closure of the key 25 leads to voltage on the secondary winding of the transformer 10 and, therefore, at the poles 11, 12 of the current source, to which the electrodes 14, 15 are connected, and sufficient current begins to flow through the needle section 3-1 to warm this section first to sterilization temperature, and then before melting (see Fig. 3-3). Depending on the specific electrical and physical characteristics of the needle, the required maximum current value can reach 10-120 A. At the same time, the current flows through the rest of the 3-2 needles enclosed between the electrodes 15 and 18. However, since the length, and, therefore, the electrical resistance of this part is much larger than that of section 3-1, its heating will be insufficient to achieve the melting temperature.

It should be noted that on the surface of some needles to be crushed needles, near their heads, there may be glue growths, the sizes of which can vary within 2-3 mm. When the electrode 14 hits such a build-up, electrical contact between it and the needle does not occur, so that the coincidence circuit 27 does not work, and no current is supplied to destroy the needle. Obviously, to create a stable contact of the electrode 14 with the needle, it is necessary to shift this electrode towards the tip of the needle. However, this will lead to an undesirable 3-4 mm increase in the length of the unburned remainder of the needles, in which there is no adhesive growth.

In the proposed device, this problem can be solved by bending the plates 14, 15, 17, 18 by an angle a to the direction of movement of these plates, as shown in FIG. 4. Due to this technique, in the case of electrode contact

14 (and / or plate 15) with an adhesive build-up on the needle with further lowering of the base 16, the contact points of the plates 14, 15, 17, 18 will begin to shift along the length of the needle 3 in the direction of its tip. This process is interrupted as soon as plate 14,

15 move from the adhesive growth and between them there will be electrical contact through the needle 3.

It has been experimentally established that since at the moment of burning section 31 there is practically no mechanical effect on it, the burning process of this section is characterized by high stability and reproducibility. The melting of the needle occurs approximately in the middle of the head 3-1; in this case, a drop of molten metal is formed on both sides of the melting point on the needle (one of which is shown in a conventional form in Fig. 34). These drops reliably melt, i.e. seal the needle cavity on both sides of the melting point. As a result, the penetration of gases from the needle cavity is minimized, and the penetration of harmful substances from the syringe is completely prevented both during further destruction of the needle and after its completion. After the area 3-1 of the needle is melted, all of the current begins to flow between the electrode 15 and the end electrode 8, i.e. through section 3-2 of the needle adjacent to its tip (Fig. 5). The result is a consistent destruction of this section, which is accelerated by mechanical action from the end electrode 8. Unburned remains of the destroyed needle fall into the collection 34. Upon completion of the destruction of the needle, the operator moves the base 16 in the opposite direction. In this case, the sensor 31 is turned off, as a result of which the key 25 opens and the voltage to the electrodes 8, 14, 15 is stopped. When the rod 24 enters the gap between these plates, pushing them apart, unburned needle segments secured between the plates are released and fall into the collection. With further movement of the base, the contact surfaces of the plates 14, 15, 17, 18 are re-cleaned with the rod 24 (see Fig. 3-4), after which the device returns to its original state (Fig. 3-5). Operation of the embodiment of the device of FIG. 6 is basically similar to the previous version. Its distinctive feature is that the relative movement of the needle 3 and the electrodes 14, 15 is realized here due to the movement of the needle. This movement is provided by the rotation of the bracket 32, which carries the sleeve 4 and the linkage 33, to which the spring-loaded electrode 8 is connected, in the direction indicated by the arrow. The rotation of the bracket can also be carried out both manually and from an electric drive. The use of the lever-hinge mechanism 33 provides reliable contact between the tip of the needle 3 and the end electrode 8 in all positions of the needle. Thus, it is obvious that all the described variants of the proposed device, indeed, solve the problem of stable and reliable destruction of medical needles with minimal penetration into the external environment of harmful substances from the cavity of the needle and syringe. In addition to those described, other implementations of the proposed device are possible. For example, the direction of relative movement of the needle and the electrodes can make an angle with the axis of the placement zone that is significantly different from the straight line. This solution is similar to bending the electrodes, i.e. reduces sensitivity to adhesive growths. If the problem of glue growths on the needle is not relevant, you can abandon the ones shown in FIG. 3 elements of automatic control over the establishment of electrical contact between the electrode 14 and the needle and simply connect the plates 17, 18 with their corresponding electrodes 14, 15. In this case, the key 25 is connected from the sensor 31 directly through the control circuit 26. Among the advantages of the device, it should be noted that it does not provide for mechanical deformation of the needle to ensure sealing of its cavity, which removes the problem of careful selection of the created forces in relation to needles with various mechanical properties. Moreover, the proposed device, in contrast to the known, provides double cleaning

contact electrode surfaces in each cycle of needle destruction without the use of any special drives for this purpose. This, of course, greatly simplifies the design of the device and increases the reliability of its operation.

Claims (4)

1. A device for destroying a medical needle, comprising a housing, an input socket for introducing a needle with a stopper for the head, a cylindrical needle placement area located coaxially with the input socket, a current source connected to the first pole of the current source, an end electrode mounted for input in the placement area from the side opposite the input socket, a sealing device provided with two electrodes connected to the opposite poles of the current source, combined with the needle fixing element nti and installed together with the rest of the locking elements with a mutual offset in the direction of the axis of the zone of placement and with the possibility of entering into this zone on the site adjacent to the input socket by mutual relative movement of the device for sealing and the zone of placement at an angle of 20 - 90 <198> to the axis of this zone, characterized in that the needle-fixing elements are made in the form of metal plates facing each other with long sides mounted on a common base pairwise symmetrically relative to the plane, passing through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the direction of relative movement of this zone and the base, and spring-loaded in the direction of this plane.  2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the metal plates are connected to the base by means of jumpers offset relative to the plane passing through the axis of the needle placement zone parallel to the direction of relative movement of this zone and the base, and the device is equipped with a rod fixed in the housing between the metal plates and the needle placement zone parallel to the axis of this zone, while the diameter of the rod is 0.3 - 3 of the diameter of the specified zone, the length of the jumpers is selected to exceed the diameter of the rod, and the distance between the rod and needle placement 0.7 - 0.9 of the long side of the metal plates.  3. The device according to claim 2, characterized in that the metal plates in the sealing device are bent in the direction of the input socket by the same angle with respect to the direction of relative movement of the needle and base placement zone and the device is equipped with a matching circuit included in the current source circuit with a key, the control circuit which is connected to the output of the coincidence circuit, an inverter connected by its input to the second plate of the device for sealing, and the output to one of the inputs of the coincidence circuit, and a min sensor the distance between the rod and the base, connected by its output to another input of the coincidence circuit. 4. The device according to paragraphs. 1-3, characterized in that the base is fixedly mounted in the housing above the input socket, the input socket is mounted on a platform mounted to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the axis of the needle placement zone, and the end electrode is connected to the platform via a lever-articulated mechanism.