Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150015—Source of blood
  • A61B5/150022—Source of blood for capillary blood or interstitial fluid
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150206—Construction or design features not otherwise provided for; manufacturing or production; packages; sterilisation of piercing element, piercing device or sampling device
  • A61B5/150274—Manufacture or production processes or steps for blood sampling devices
  • A61B5/150282—Manufacture or production processes or steps for blood sampling devices for piercing elements, e.g. blade, lancet, canula, needle
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150374—Details of piercing elements or protective means for preventing accidental injuries by such piercing elements
  • A61B5/150381—Design of piercing elements
  • A61B5/150412—Pointed piercing elements, e.g. needles, lancets for piercing the skin
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150374—Details of piercing elements or protective means for preventing accidental injuries by such piercing elements
  • A61B5/150381—Design of piercing elements
  • A61B5/150503—Single-ended needles
  • A61B5/150519—Details of construction of hub, i.e. element used to attach the single-ended needle to a piercing device or sampling device
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150374—Details of piercing elements or protective means for preventing accidental injuries by such piercing elements
  • A61B5/150534—Design of protective means for piercing elements for preventing accidental needle sticks, e.g. shields, caps, protectors, axially extensible sleeves, pivotable protective sleeves
  • A61B5/150541—Breakable protectors, e.g. caps, shields or sleeves, i.e. protectors separated destructively, e.g. by breaking a connecting area
  • A61B5/150549—Protectors removed by rotational movement, e.g. torsion or screwing
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150374—Details of piercing elements or protective means for preventing accidental injuries by such piercing elements
  • A61B5/150534—Design of protective means for piercing elements for preventing accidental needle sticks, e.g. shields, caps, protectors, axially extensible sleeves, pivotable protective sleeves
  • A61B5/15058—Joining techniques used for protective means
  • A61B5/150618—Integrally moulded protectors, e.g. protectors simultaneously moulded together with a further component, e.g. a hub, of the piercing element
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/150007—Details
  • A61B5/150374—Details of piercing elements or protective means for preventing accidental injuries by such piercing elements
  • A61B5/150534—Design of protective means for piercing elements for preventing accidental needle sticks, e.g. shields, caps, protectors, axially extensible sleeves, pivotable protective sleeves
  • A61B5/150694—Procedure for removing protection means at the time of piercing
  • A61B5/150717—Procedure for removing protection means at the time of piercing manually removed
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
  • A61B5/00—Measuring for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
  • A61B5/15—Devices for taking samples of blood
  • A61B5/151—Devices specially adapted for taking samples of capillary blood, e.g. by lancets, needles or blades
  • A61B5/15186—Devices loaded with a single lancet, i.e. a single lancet with or without a casing is loaded into a reusable drive device and then discarded after use; drive devices reloadable for multiple use

Definitions

• a conventional lancet comprises a needle held by a support body that has been moulded about the needle.
• a removable guard is moulded at the same time to cover the point of the needle. The guard can be snapped away to expose the needle for use.
• Conventional moulding techniques tend to subject the needle tip to a bending force so that it can be deflected to one side and thus becomes offset from the body. This can be a major disadvantage when the lancet is used in conjunction with an automatic finger pricking device, where the lancet is held by its body and the needlepoint is driven through a small hole in a support platform held against the blood- sampling site. Any misalignment of the needle could cause increased discomfort during the pricking operation.
• recent diagnostic techniques may include a blood collecting test strip at the sampling site, so it is important to prevent any misalignment of the needle tip to avoid contact between the needle tip and the support platform, or between the needle tip and the wrong part of the test strip.
• this invention provides a lancet with a removable guard located over the point of a needle part of the lancet, the guard being formed from a moulded plastics material with an outer edge thickened region leading from the end of the guard remote from the needle point to a thinner section of the plastics material approaching the needle point.
• the plastics material is caused to be slowed temporarily as it meets the interface between the outer edge thickened region and the thinner section approaching the needle tip.
• the guard will be formed with a centrally positioned hole close to the end of the guard remote from the needle point. This hole will be created by a pin forming part of the mould for creating the guard.
• the plastics material will be caused to flow around the central pin. This helps to create a more even flow to both sides of the guard. Consequently, during manufacture, the needle tip will be subjected to controlled balanced forces which act behind the needle point, subjecting it to a lower bending force than with conventional procedures.
• the plastics material forms a further thickened region about the needle tip, but separated from the outer edge region by said thinner section. This is to protect the needle tip from being accidentally being displaced through the side of the plastics material prior to use. Although the needle tip itself will be surrounded by a thickened region of material, the slowing down of the material in the thinner section will be sufficient to limit the potential for a bending force to be applied to the needle tip.
• the guard will be of generally tab-like form, with the thickened region forming arc-like portions on the two side edges of the guard. The guard can be interconnected with a support body holding the needle via a breakable neck portion moulded with the guard and the support body.
• the invention also extends to a method of forming a lancet in which a needle is held in a mould formed to create a support body for holding the base portion of the needle and a removable guard about the pointed needle tip, the mould having an entry point for plastics material, at the end of the guard remote from the needle point, leading to an outer edge thickened hollow region which in turn leads to a thinner hollow section approaching the needle tip and plastics material is injected into the mould via the entry point to create the guard about the needle tip.
• the plastics material flows around both sides of a pin located close to said entry point towards said edge thickened hollow region and ideally may flow into an enlarged hollow region surrounding the needle tip from said thinner hollow section. It is preferred that the plastics material flows from the guard through a neck portion of the mould leading to the part of the mould defining the support body.
• Figures 1 and 2 are plan, side views respectively of a lancet of this invention.
• Figure 3 is a vertical section through the lancet of Figures 1 and 2.
• the lancet shown in the drawings incorporates a needle 1 ( Figure 3) held within a support body 2.
• the tip portion 3 of the needle (having an angled point 4) is protected by a guard 5.
• the support body 2 and the guard 5 are moulded simultaneously about the needle 1.
• the needle is held by pins which create passageways 6 and 7 within the support body 1.
• the plastics material is injected through an entry point of the mould at the location 8 and is caused to deflect around a pin which creates the hole 9 in the guard 5, so as to increase the balance of flow of material to either side of the pin 9.
• Conventionally several lancets are moulded at one time to either side of a spine.
• the plastics material therefore enters at the location 8 at an angle and tends to bend around the far corner of the part of the mould defining the lancet such that there will be an uneven flow of pressure on to the two sides of the end portion 3 of the needle which can tend to bend it, particularly when the plastics material hits the angled face 4. There is then the possibility that the tip 3 will be bent out of shape within the guard 5 which can make the lancet more difficult to use with a finger pricker device when the guard has been removed.
• the mould is formed such that the mould material is initially encouraged to divide and flow through outer thickened regions 10.
• the guard 5 In use the guard 5 is twisted to shear the material about a neck 15 so that the guard can be removed to expose the needle tip 3 for use.
• the moulding method employed which, in particular, creates the narrowed portion 12 between the thickened outer edge regions 10 and the thickened region 13 surrounding the needle tip 3, helps to ensure that the exposed needle tip is unlikely to be in a bent condition when the guard 5 is detached.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
• Molecular Biology (AREA)
• Pathology (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Biomedical Technology (AREA)
• Hematology (AREA)
• Medical Informatics (AREA)
• Biophysics (AREA)
• Surgery (AREA)
• Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Public Health (AREA)
• Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Dermatology (AREA)
• Measurement Of The Respiration, Hearing Ability, Form, And Blood Characteristics Of Living Organisms (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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ID=9939062

Family Applications (1)

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Cited By (2)

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Citations (3)

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• 2002
  • 2002-06-21 GB GBGB0214373.3A patent/GB0214373D0/en not_active Ceased
• 2003
  • 2003-06-12 AU AU2003240093A patent/AU2003240093A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-06-12 US US10/518,513 patent/US7914546B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-06-12 EP EP03732707A patent/EP1519680B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-12 JP JP2004515001A patent/JP4664070B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2003-06-12 WO PCT/GB2003/002538 patent/WO2004000118A1/en not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (3)

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