Who invented retractable needles

We will also look at the billions of dollars in hidden healthcare costs stemming from accidents using these dangerous needles, and reliable, inexpensive solutions to the dangerous blood collection and injection needle designs. There are safer needles being used through most of the world, but due to a combination of poor OSHA oversight, GPO kickbacks and a "profits over people" attitute, they are NOT being made available to nurses in the United States, and a huge number of healthcare workers and patients are paying the price.

More Information PDF. This video shows the dangers of doing blood draws on infants and young children. The poor design of the butterfly-style blood drawing device creates situations where the sharp must be released in order to insert the sample tube, which could result in a needlestick to the heathcare worker.

This manufacturer's video shows the sharp being released several times during a butterfly device draw. This is a violation of both common sense and OSHA guidelines because of the danger of a needlestick to the healthcare worker, especially when performed on a squirming infant.

A Needle Safety Advocacy Organization. Follow Us:. The Problem. The FDA Alert [] recommended that design features provide protection before, during, and after use, and after disposal. Site by. He received awards from the National Institute for Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health to further develop his work and eventually commercialize it.

Congressional representatives touted the important advances of this small business. The final product, the VanishPoint syringe, embodies his innovation. The challenges faced by Shaw and Retractable Technologies in entering the medical device market have been extensively chronicled.

The way hospitals purchase supplies such as syringes advantages large incumbent sellers and manufacturers over small startups such as Retractable Technologies. Retractable Technologies confronted this challenge by relying on its patent portfolio.

The patents covering the syringe included patents on the retractable needle design as well as tamperproof features that protect against intentional as well as accidental misuse.

However, these patents assured that Retractable Technologies could protect its innovation against invasion. The value of the retractable syringe design has been important to advancing health care goals worldwide. According to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, African countries continued using auto-disable syringes after the completion of international aid programs because of the public health benefits.

These benefits include not only the prevention of needlestick injuries, but preventing needle reuse, which had undermined other vaccine initiatives. The foundation 86 of the ferrule 84, which is now frictionally engaged by the punch 70, is immediately and automatically retracted into the syringe body 12 as a result of the vacuum created within the variable vacuum compartment This causes the piercing tip end 78 of the needle body 16 to permanently reside enclosed within the syringe body 12 and protectively pressed against the inner surface 28 of the tube 18 automatically and immediately after a single injection of fluid.

Thus, the invented syringe apparatus 10 prevents needle reuse and accidental needle prickings and therefore ultimately alleviates the transmission of blood-borne pathogens and other diseases by contaminated syringe needles.

In one embodiment as shown in FIG. The safety syringe apparatus 10 has a capacity for injecting at least about 1 cc of fluid, and preferably from about 3 cc to about 10 cc of fluid, to create the requisite amount of vacuum within the variable vacuum compartment 24 for withdrawing the needle body 16 into the syringe body The piercing tip end 78 then permanently resides enclosed within the syringe body 12 and protectively pressed against the inner surface 28 of the tube In an alternative embodiment, the piercing tip end 78 permanently and protectively resides enclosed within the fluid compartment 26 of the syringe body 12, without being pressed against the inner surface 28 of the tube 18, automatically and immediately after a single injection of fluid.

The present invention also provides a safety syringe apparatus that permanently prevents needle reuse or accidental needle prickings with contaminated syringe needles by providing a protective barrier between the hands and the hollow needle automatically and immediately after a single use and during disposal.

The present invention also provides an automatically and immediately retractable needle safety syringe apparatus that is both efficient and effective at preventing the transmission of blood-borne pathogens and other diseases through needle reuse or accidental needle prickings with contaminated syringe needles. The present invention also provides an automatically and immediately retractable needle safety syringe apparatus that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, relative to the cost of manufacturing standard or conventional hypodermic needle syringes.

The present invention also provides an automatically and immediately retractable needle safety syringe apparatus that is simple and self evident to operate and therefore requires no additional training to use the apparatus effectively and efficiently.

The present invention also provides an automatically and immediately retractable needle safety syringe apparatus having a safety feature that is an integral part of the safety syringe, meaning that the safety feature is built-in as a necessary, inherent and integral part of the apparatus and is therefore not merely an accessory which might be removed, circumvented or overridden.

It is to be understood that the foregoing description and specific embodiments are merely illustrative of the best mode of the invention and the principles thereof, and that various modifications and additions may be made to the apparatus by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said pair of internal longitudinally offset tabs of said punch comprise:. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said syringe body further comprises:. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said needle body is temporarily attached to said needle attachment end of said syringe body, said needle body further comprises:.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said syringe body between said shaft seal and said piston seal defines said variable vacuum compartment. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said syringe body further comprises a tube, a shaft seal attachment and a needle attachment, said tube of said syringe body having a shaft seal attachment end, a needle attachment end opposing said shaft seal attachment end and an inner surface extending within and along said tube between said shaft seal attachment end of said tube and said needle attachment end of said tube, said shaft seal attachment having said shaft seal interposed therein, said needle attachment having a needle receiving conduit, said shaft seal attachment and said shaft seal together insertably attachable to said shaft seal attachment end of said tube, said needle attachment insertably attachable to said needle attachment end of said tube.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said punch is attached to said piston and positioned adjacent said piston end of said plunger. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said plunger further comprises a thumb end and a piston end opposing said thumb end, a shaft slidably engageable with said shaft seal of said shaft seal attachment, a thumb platform attached to said thumb end, a piston attached to said shaft, and a punch attached to said piston, said punch positioned adjacent said piston and protruding toward said needle attachment.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said needle body further comprises a hollow capillary channel, said hollow capillary channel having a piercing tip end and a ferrule end opposing said piercing tip end said ferrule attached to said ferrule end of said hollow capillary channel, said piercing tip end and said hollow capillary channel slidably disposed within said needle receiving conduit of said needle attachment, said ferrule having a foundation and a grommet, said foundation having a surface, said grommet having a surface temporarily and peripherally attached to said surface of said foundation.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said surface of said grommet comprises means for temporarily and peripherally attaching said surface of said foundation of said ferrule to said needle attachment of said syringe body forming a slightly concave surface. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said piston further comprises a piston seal attached to said plunger, said piston slidably disposed, via said piston seal, against said inner surface of said tube.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said punch is a substantially hollow cylinder; wherein said proximal block tab extends around less than about one-half of the circumference of said substantially hollow cylinder; and wherein said distal wedge tab extends around less than about one-half of the circumference of said substantially hollow cylinder opposite said proximal block tab.

A method of permanently and protectively retracting a hollow needle automatically within a safety syringe apparatus, said safety syringe apparatus having a syringe body, a plunger and a needle body, the syringe body having a variable vacuum compartment and an inner surface, the plunger having a punch, said punch having internal, longitudinally offset tabs, the needle body having a ferrule and a piercing tip end, the ferrule of the needle body having a grommet and a foundation, comprising the steps of:.

Jun 20, An automatically retractable needle safety syringe apparatus, comprising: a syringe body having seal means on an end thereof; a needle body having attachment means for temporarily attaching said needle body to said syringe body; and a plunger having seal means and punch means, said seal means of said plunger and said seal means of said syringe body together creating a vacuum within said syringe body, said punch means of said plunger for engaging and withdrawing said needle body within said syringe body.

An automatically retractable needle safety syringe apparatus, comprising: a syringe body having a pair of opposing ends and a variable vacuum compartment within said syringe body, said variable vacuum compartment located at a first end of said syringe body; a needle body having a surface temporarily attached to said syringe body at a second end of said syringe body; and a plunger slidably engageable with said syringe body having a punch attached to said plunger, said punch having a piercing edge for piercing said surface of said needle body and a pair of internal, longitudinally offset tabs for frictionally engaging said needle body.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said pair of internal longitudinally offset tabs of said punch comprise: a first internal proximal tab shaped to press against said needle body at the end of the injection stroke; and a second internal distal tab shaped to engage said needle body at the end of the injection stroke. A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said syringe body further comprises: a shaft seal attachment end; a needle attachment end opposing said shaft seal attachment end; and a shaft seal insertably attachable into said shaft seal attachment end.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said needle body is temporarily attached to said needle attachment end of said syringe body, said needle body further comprises: a ferrule; and a piercing tip end attached to said ferrule.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said plunger, further comprises: a shaft having a piston attached thereto, said shaft slidably engageable with said shaft seal of said syringe body; a piston seal attached to said piston and slidably disposed within said syringe body; and a punch attached to said piston.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said piston has a piston surface; wherein said shaft seal attachment and said inner surface of said tube extending within and along said tube between said shaft seal attachment and said piston surface define a stationary surface; and wherein said stationary surface and said piston surface define said variable vacuum compartment.

A safety syringe apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said proximal tab is block shaped; and wherein said distal tab is wedge shaped. Referenced Cited. Patent History. Current U. Justia Legal Resources. Find a Lawyer. Law Students. US Federal Law. US State Law. Other Databases. Senate antitrust subcommittee has been holding hearings on whether hospitals' buying practices are stifling competition.

The U. Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation of hospital purchasing last year. None of that is any comfort to the gaunt and weary Shaw, 54, who regards the settlements as an empty victory.

Hospitals still won't buy his syringes--or even allow him to demonstrate them to nurses, doctors, and other clinicians. He recently outsourced manufacturing to China, reducing his costs and, he says, enabling him to undercut his competitors on syringe pricing.

After that he hopes the forces of capitalism will prevail, and the billion-dollar syringe market will crack open and let him in. An idealistic bumpkin? Shaw is making some headway. Retractable Technologies, his firm, recently won a federal contract to provide syringes to five African nations trying to prevent the spread of AIDS. Retractable lost money on operations for the period. Doctors and nurses are dying. Accidental needle-stick injuries are a quiet crisis in the nation's health-care system.

Centers for Disease Control estimates that about , are reported annually in hospitals, though the agency says the actual number is probably far higher. Nurses and lab technicians who draw blood are the most common victims, and they are often reluctant to report accidents for fear of being reprimanded for being careless. Each year about 1, workers will contract hepatitis C, a deadly liver infection, from an accidental needle stick. Manufacturers have developed safety syringes over the years, but many nurses found them awkward to use, according to Dr.

June Fisher, a specialist in occupational health medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. Cost was a factor, too, for financially strapped hospitals, because so-called safety syringes made by Becton Dickinson and others are about three times more expensive than the standard versions, which typically run to about 10 cents each.

But pressure is mounting on hospitals to reduce needle-stick injuries. Health-care workers' unions are fighting for safer equipment; some injured workers have sued hospitals for negligence, winning settlements. In , California became the first state to pass a law requiring the use of safety needles. Into this fray stepped a man who has always been a maverick. Shaw studied engineering at the University of Arizona, where he scraped by with C's. His first company, launched in , was a job-placement agency started in a corner of a bicycle shop in Little Elm.

The profits paid for him to get his engineering certifications, and he opened an engineering firm in His first customer: an amputee with a broken artificial leg. The man's insurance company had refused to cover the cost of a new leg because it insisted he had intentionally damaged the original one; he wanted an independent engineering study to prove that the limb had a design flaw that caused it to crack.