Syringe needle abstract
A recapping apparatus includes a generally U-shaped frame member
having a plurality of spring biased attachment clips for receiving
a syringe with needle cap so that the medical professional can remove
the needle with syringe from the cap with one hand and thereafter
replace the syringe with needle back into the cap in case it is
needed for reuse. At the end of the period of use such as an operation,
the syringes with needles inserted into the caps can be removed
from the attachment clips and disposed of in a sharps container.
Syringe needle claims
I claim:
1. Apparatus providing for one-handed removal of a syringe with
needle from a needle cap and subsequent replacement, comprising:
a frame having means for attachment to a stationary object;
a gripping mechanism attached to said frame, said gripping mechanism
including resiliently urged, internal gripping surfaces to receive
and hold a syringe with needle having a needle cap thereon, said
syringe with needle being removable from said needle cap and replaceable
into said needle cap which is held in a gripped position by said
gripping mechanism; and
said frame includes first and second surfaces forming a generally
L-shaped portion when viewed in cross-section wherein said friction-gripping
mechanism is attached to said first surface a sufficient distance
away from said second surface such that the closed end of a needle
cap gripped in said gripping mechanism will be landed onto said
second surface to cooperate with said gripping mechanism to hold
said needle cap stationary during replacement of a syringe with
needle into a needle cap.
2. The structure set forth in claim 1 including:
said gripping mechanism including a first gripping member attached
to said frame and a second gripping member mounted for pivotal movement
with respect to said first gripping member; and
a resilient element engaging said first and second gripping members
to urge gripping portions of said members toward each other to resiliently
grip said needle cap.
3. Apparatus for the safe removal of a syringe with needle from
a needle cap and subsequent replacement thereof, comprising:
a generally U-shaped frame having an attachment element for attaching
said U-shaped frame to a stationary object;
a plurality of friction gripping mechanisms attached to said frame,
said gripping mechanism including resiliently urged, internal gripping
surfaces to receive and hold the needle cap of a syringe with needle
having a needle cap thereon, said syringe with needle being removable
from said needle cap and replaceable into said needle cap which
is held in a gripped position by said gripping mechanism and
said generally U-shaped frame includes first and second surfaces
forming a generally L-shaped portion when viewed in cross-section
wherein said friction gripping mechanism is attached to said first
surface a sufficient distance away from said second surface such
that the closed end of a needle cap gripped in said gripping mechanism
will be landed onto said second surface to cooperate with said gripping
mechanism to hold said needle caps stationary during replacement
of a syringe with needle into a needle cap.
4. The structure set forth in claim 3 including:
each of said friction gripping mechanisms including a first gripping
member attached to said frame and a second gripping member mounted
for pivotal movement with respect to said first gripping member;
a resilient element engaging said first and second gripping members
to urge said gripping members toward each other to resiliently grip
said needle cap.
5. The structure set forth in claim 1 including:
said stationary object in an intravenous feeding pole.
6. The structure set forth in claim 3 including:
said stationary object in an intravenous feeding pole.
7. The structure set forth in claim 5 further including:
a sharps container for receiving used needles and a mounting mechanism
for attachment of said sharps container to said pole below said
U-shaped frame.
8. The structure set forth in claim 3 including:
said friction gripping mechanisms being mounted to said U-shaped
frame at spaced intervals to allow the user to remove and replace
a syringe from one friction gripping mechanism without touching
a syringe with needle and cap held in an adjacent gripping mechanism.
Syringe needle description
SPECIFICATION
1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention relates to a system for uncapping and
recapping syringes with needles while eliminating the danger of
needle sticks.
2. Background of the Invention
The danger of infection by the transfer of pathogens from a patient
to a doctor or other medical professional, is at perhaps its greatest
level due to the ever increasing presence of AIDS viruses. Of course,
the presence of AIDS is not limited to patients, and AIDS may also
be transferred from doctors or other medical professionals to the
patients. One of the greatest dangers to the medical community is
the needle "stick," where the medical professional accidentally
punctures himself or herself with a needle which may have been exposed
to the blood of a diseased patient. Such needle sticks are difficult
to avoid in typical needle with syringe usage because the medical
professional must expose the needle with syringe for usage and must
then use it. Further, the medical professional must then dispose
of the needle with syringe. And in the interim, it may be necessary
for the medical professional to leave the needle with syringe on
a table or other convenient location so that the needle with syringe
may be used again. For example, it is not unusual for an anesthesiologist
or nurse anesthetist during the course of a surgery to have several
already used needles with syringes lying on a table, however, in
spite of regulations against recapping with two hands, it is the
general practice that the needles with syringes are recapped anyway.
Recapping of needles has become such a likely area for needles
sticks that OSHA has promulgated regulations which actually prevent
the medical professional from using two hands to replace a needle
cap onto a needle with syringe.
Insofar as known to the inventor, there has been no successful
remedy for this problem. Following the OSHA regulations is not a
complete answer, for the medical professional is unable to recap
the needle on a temporary basis and thus must leave the needles
with syringes lying exposed if they are to be reused since they
cannot be recapped. U.S. Pat. No. 4985020 of Kasuya discloses
a needle cap having a guide portion to guide the needle into the
cavity and a radially extending gripping tab so that the user may
hold the cap by the gripping tab out of the line of reentry of the
needle into the cap. Following the teaching of Kasuya, the medical
professional must still hold the cap during re-insertion and thus,
while there may be some reduction of exposure, the thumb and forefinger
holding the cap are certainly still exposed to the potential of
a needle stick. Sage Products, Inc. are currently marketing a product
known as the "IV Pole Needle Resheather." The Sage needle
resheather may be mounted on an "IV" pole and includes
a series of conically shaped openings. The conically shaped openings
are of various sizes for receiving needle caps of various sizes,
which may be inserted into the appropriately sized hole and pushed
down to be held in place so that the syringe with needle may be
removed from the cap and then later resheathed. The advantage of
such a system is that only one hand is required so that the OSHA
regulation is not violated. The disadvantage of the system is that
the cap must be inserted into the opening and frictionally held.
Thus, it is up to the medical operator to properly fit the needle
cap into the opening. If the needle cap is not fitted tightly, then
the cap may become loose during removal of the syringe with needle,
thus defeating the purpose and requiring the medical professional
to use two hands to free the needle with syringe from the cap. It
is therefore believed that there yet remains a need for a safe and
reliable system for uncapping and recapping needles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The apparatus of this invention is a needle recapping system which
provides for reliable one-handed removal and replacement of a syringe
with needle with no need for the second hand to be anywhere in the
area. The apparatus of this invention includes a frame which may
be attached to a stationary object such as an IV pole. The frame
includes a plurality of spaced gripping mechanisms which are attached
to the frame. Each gripping mechanism includes resiliently urged
internal gripping surfaces to receive and hold a syringe with needle
having a needle cap thereon. The syringe with needle is thereafter
removable from the needle cap with the needle cap being held by
the internal gripping surfaces. The syringe with needle may be easily
re-inserted into the needle cap for temporary storage or for disposal.
Each gripping mechanism includes a first gripping member attached
to the frame and a second gripping member mounted for pivotal movement
with respect to the first gripping member. A resilient element engages
both the first and second gripping members to urge said members
toward each other to resiliently grip the needle cap.
The features just described are only some of the features of this
invention, which are further described in the description of the
preferred embodiment to follow. The scope of this invention will
be determined by the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the recapping system of this invention
mounted onto an IV pole in combination with a container for receiving
sharp instruments for later, safe disposal;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the recapping system of this invention
removed from the IV pole and illustrating a syringe with needle
and cap in a gripped position;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2 of the
attachment mechanism for attaching the recapping system of this
invention to a pole;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 2 illustrating
the gripping mechanism holding the syringe with needle cap in its
proper position;
FIG. 5 is a side view illustrating the removal and reinsertion
of a needle with syringe into a needle cap being held by the gripping
mechanism of this invention; and
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a typical operating room layout illustrating
the utilization of the recapping system of this invention by an
anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to the drawings, the letter R generally designates the
syringe with needle recapping system of the preferred embodiment
of this invention mounted onto an intravenous feeding pole commonly
known as an "IV" pole 12. The recapping system includes
the apparatus generally designated as 10 for one-handed removal
of a syringe S with needle N from a gripped needle cap C and subsequent
replacement of the syringe with needle into the gripped needle cap.
The IV pole 12 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be one of any suitable
design for such a device for holding intravenous feeding bottles
such as 11. Such an IV pole 12 includes lower base pole portion
12a which is attached to any type of suitable rolling support such
as the 4-wheeled rolling support base designated as 13 in FIG. 1.
The IV pole further includes an upper telescoping pole portion 12b
which terminates in a laterally extending IV support 12c.
The apparatus 10 for recapping, as illustrated in perspective in
FIGS. 1 and 2 includes a frame 20 which is generally U-shaped as
viewed from above. It should be understood that the frame 20 may
be any other suitable shape including a straight frame member or
a frame member in any other curved configuration. The frame member
20 is L-shaped as viewed in the cross-section of FIGS. 3 and 4 and
includes a vertical section 20a and a horizontal section 20b.
An attachment mechanism 21 is attached to the rear surface 20c
of the frame member for mounting the frame member 20 onto the IV
pole at any suitable height. The attachment member 21 is generally
U-shaped as viewed from the top as shown in FIG. 2 and includes
an internal curved segment 21a integrally formed with a lateral
segment 21b and a third, outer segment 21c. The outer segment 21c
includes a threaded mounting screw 22 terminating in a knob 22a
so that the attaching member 21 can mount the apparatus frame 20
at any height along the telescoping pole portions 12a and 12b of
the IV pole 12.
The recapping apparatus 10 further includes a plurality of spaced
needle cap gripping mechanisms 25 which are suitably spaced with
respect to each other along the vertical frame segment 20a. Each
gripping mechanism 25 is identical and thus only one will be described.
Each gripping mechanism 25 includes a first gripping member or gripping
jaw 25a which is attached to the vertical surface of the vertical
frame segment 25a by any suitable means such as a screw (not shown).
The gripping mechanism further includes a second gripping element
or jaw 25b which is attached to the first gripping element by a
suitable pin 25c so that the two gripping elements are mounted for
pivotal movement with respect to each other. A spring is mounted
about the connecting pin 25c and is positioned to engage both gripping
elements 25a and 25b in order to resiliently urge the gripping surfaces
toward each other. In this manner, a needle cap C may be resiliently
held in a standup, vertical position as shown in FIGS. 2 3 and
4. The height h of the vertical frame segment 20a is such that with
the gripping element 25 mounted thereon, the needle cap C may be
landed against the surface of the bottom transverse frame member
20b with the open end of the needle cap C exposed for insertion
of the needle N with syringe S into the needle cap C.
Referring again to FIG. 1 a container 30 is also mounted onto
the IV pole for purposes of receiving sharp objects for ultimate
disposal. Such a container is sometimes called a "sharps"
container and may be one of several varieties currently manufactured.
One such container is manufactured by Sage Products, Inc. and is
stated to be covered by one or more U.S. Pat. Nos. 4375849; 4657139;
4779728; Re. 33413; 4863057 and 292037. The sharps container
30 may be mounted onto the IV pole base section 12a by any suitable
means such as an attachment mechanism of the same type as utilized
for the needle recapping apparatus 10 of this invention. In this
manner, after a syringe S with needle has been used and is no longer
needed, the medical professional may dispose of the needle with
syringe by dropping it into the sharps container 30.
Referring now to FIG. 6 a schematic for a typical operating room
is illustrated. The patient's bed or operating table 40 includes
outwardly extending "boards" 41 and 42 which receive the
arms of the patient P. An anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist
sits in the chair 43. To the left of the anesthetist is the drug
cart 44 and to the right of the anesthetist is the gas machine 45
all of which is well-known in the art. The IV pole 12 may also be
placed to the left of the anesthetist with the recapping apparatus
10 mounted thereon and within easy reach of the anesthetist. During
an operation, the anesthetist may utilize some to all of the gripping
mechanisms 25 of the recapping apparatus. Syringes with needles
may be mounted in one or more of the gripping mechanisms 25 so that
syringes S with needles N are ready to use or may be replaced into
caps C for safe, temporary storage until reuse. At the end of the
operation, all of the syringes S with needles are dropped into the
sharps container 30. In this manner, the recapping apparatus T keeps
all of the syringes with needles in easy reach but allows them to
be stored in a capped position between uses.
Having described the invention above, various modifications of
the techniques, procedures, material and equipment will be apparent
to those in the art. It is intended that all such variations within
the scope and spirit of the appended claims be embraced thereby.
For example, there are many environments which the needle recapping
system of this invention can be used such as during surgery as previously
discussed but also in patient holding areas, recovery rooms, intensive
care areas, surgical pharmacies, outpatient service areas, therapeutic
clinics, emergency rooms, emergency vehicles, various laboratories
and anywhere else where needles with syringes are used. |