LANCING APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A PUNCTURE WOUND

• US 20070233167A1
• Filed: 03/02/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Weiss, Thomas, Forster, Richard, Sachsenweger, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,002,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 606/182
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150022 for capillary blood or interstitial fluid
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150175 Adjustment of penetration depth
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150412 Pointed piercing elements, e.g. needles, lancets for piercing the skin blade-like piercing elements A61B5/150442
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150519 Details of construction of hub, i.e. element used to attach the single-ended needle to a piercing device or sampling device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150824 by visual feedback
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15113 Manually triggered, i.e. the triggering requires a deliberate action by the user such as pressing a drive button
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15117 comprising biased elements, resilient elements or a spring, e.g. a helical spring, leaf spring, or elastic strap
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15151 Each piercing element being stocked in a separate isolated compartment
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15163 Characterized by propelling the piercing element in an axial direction relative to the disc
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15182 Means for keeping track or checking of the total number of piercing elements already used or the number of piercing elements still remaining in the stocking, e.g. by check window, counter, display

Abstract

A lancing apparatus for producing a puncture wound, comprising a magazine holder for a lancet magazine with a plurality of lancets. The lancet drive comprises a drive spring, a tensioning device for tensioning the drive spring and a push rod, the push rod being adapted for coupling to a lancet located in the lancet magazine and being adapted for moving at high velocity, together with a lancet coupled thereto, by means of lancet drive during a puncture and retraction movement to produce a puncture wound. A magazine advancing mechanism is provided for advancing the lancet magazine in such a manner that the lancets stored therein can be coupled to the push rod one after the other. According to exemplary embodiments, the lancet drive is not mechanically coupled to the magazine advancing mechanism whereby a plurality of puncture wounds can be produced using the same lancet a plurality of times. The lancing apparatus compromises an actuating element for actuating the magazine advancing mechanism independently from the lancet drive, in particular for actuating it independently from the tensioning device.

Claims

1. A lancing apparatus for producing a puncture wound, comprising:

a magazine holder configured to hold a lancet magazine having a plurality of lancets;

a lancet drive comprising a drive spring, a tensioning device for tensioning the drive spring, and a push rod adapted to couple to a lancet located in the lancet magazine and to move the lancet in a puncture and retraction movement;

a magazine advancing mechanism for advancing the lancet magazine, wherein the lancets stored in the magazine can be coupled to the push rod one after another, and wherein the lancet drive is not coupled to the magazine advancing mechanism, whereby the same lancet can be driven in the puncture and retraction movement several times to produce several puncture wounds without advancing the lancet magazine; and

an actuating element configured to actuate the magazine advancing mechanism independently from the tensioning device.

2. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism is configured to advance the lancet magazine in only one direction.

3. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the actuating element is rotatable and the magazine advancing mechanism is actuated by rotating the actuating element.

4. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lancet magazine is a revolver magazine.

5. The lancing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises an axle which couples the actuating element to the lancet magazine.

6. The lancing apparatus of claim 5, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises a unidirectional coupling located between the axle and the actuating element.

7. The lancing apparatus of claim 6, wherein the unidirectional coupling comprises a ratchet.

8. The lancing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises a rotation limitation device for restricting the rotation of the lancet magazine to less than 360°

.

9. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises a restoring spring adapted to be tensioned upon actuation of the magazine advancing mechanism.

10. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display for displaying usage status of the lancets of a lancet magazine inserted into the magazine holder.

11. The lancing apparatus of claim 10, wherein the display comprises a ring having markings on an exterior side thereof, each marking being assigned to a position of a lancet in the lancet magazine, wherein actuation of the magazine advancing mechanism turns the marking ring relative to a housing marking to align the housing marking with one of the markings of the marking ring.

12. The lancing apparatus of claim 11, wherein the ring has numeric markings and the numeric marking that is aligned with the housing marking after the turn corresponds to the number of unused lancets in the magazine.

13. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the actuating element has at least two independent actuation functions, the magazine advancing mechanism being actuated using a first actuation function and the tensioning device being actuated using a second actuation function of said actuating element.

14. The lancing apparatus of claim 13, wherein one of the two actuating functions is triggered by rotating the actuating element and the other of the two actuating functions is triggered by depressing the actuating element.

15. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lancet drive comprises a drive rotor adapted to be driven by the drive spring and an output-side coupling mechanism, wherein, in a forward movement phase of the lancet drive, a rotational movement of the drive rotor is converted into a translational movement of the push rod and thereby into the puncture and retraction movement of the lancet.

16. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tensioning device comprises a rotary-slide-transmission that cooperates with the actuating element such that the drive spring is tensioned when the actuating element is depressed.

17. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises a transport limitation device for limiting the lancet magazine movement upon actuation of the magazine advancing mechanism such that in each case the lancet which is next in line reaches its coupling position, in which it can be coupled to the push rod.

18. The lancing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a blood sampling system.

19. A method of operating a lancing device of the type having a removable lancet magazine carrying a plurality of lancets, a lancet drive, and an actuation element, the method comprising:

(a) moving the actuation element in a first direction and thereby tensioning the lancet drive;

(b) driving a first lancet positioned in an active position of the lancing device in a puncturing motion;

(c) repeating steps (a) and (b) at least once;

(d) moving the actuation element in a second direction and thereby advancing a second one of the lancets to the active position; and

(e) preventing the first one of the lancets from returning to the active position.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein one of the first and second directions comprises axial motion and the other of the first and second directions comprises rotation.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the second direction comprises rotation, wherein moving the actuation element in the second direction rotates the lancet magazine.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising restricting rotation of the lancet magazine beyond 360°

.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein moving the actuation element in the second direction changes a display on the lancing device to indicate that one less unused lancet is available in the magazine.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein step (b) comprises actuating a trigger element of the lancing device.

25. A lancing apparatus for producing a puncture wound, comprising:

a magazine holder configured to hold a lancet magazine having a plurality of lancets;

a lancet drive comprising a drive spring, a tensioning device for tensioning the drive spring, and a push rod adapted to couple to a lancet located in the lancet magazine and to move the lancet in a puncture and retraction movement;

a magazine advancing mechanism for advancing the lancet magazine, wherein the lancets stored in the magazine can be coupled to the push rod one after another;

an actuation element operable to tension the lancet drive when moved in a first direction and operable to actuate the magazine advancing mechanism when moved in a second direction, wherein the actuation element can be moved in the first direction several times without advancing the lancet magazine, whereby the same lancet can be used several times to produce several puncture wounds.

26. The lancing apparatus of claim 25, further comprising a trigger element operable to release the tension in the drive spring and thereby drive one of the lancets in a puncturing motion.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the first direction comprises axial motion and the second direction comprises rotation.

28. The lancing apparatus of claim 27, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises an axle, the axle coupling the actuating element to a lancet magazine.

29. The lancing apparatus of claim 28, wherein the magazine advancing mechanism comprises a unidirectional coupling located between the axle and the actuating element.

30. The lancing apparatus of claim 29, wherein the unidirectional coupling comprises a ratchet.

31. The lancing apparatus of claim 25, further comprising a display for displaying usage status of the lancets of a lancet magazine inserted into the magazine holder.

32. The lancing apparatus of claim 31, wherein the display comprises a ring having markings on an exterior side thereof, each marking being assigned to a position of a lancet in the lancet magazine, wherein actuation of the magazine advancing mechanism turns the marking ring relative to a housing marking to align the housing marking with one of the markings of the marking ring.

33. The lancing apparatus of claim 25, wherein the lancet drive comprises a drive rotor adapted to be driven by the drive spring and an output-side coupling mechanism, wherein, in a forward movement phase of the lancet drive, a rotational movement of the drive rotor is converted into a translational movement of the push rod and thereby into the puncture and retraction movement of the lancet.

34. The lancing apparatus of claim 25, wherein the tensioning device comprises a rotary-slide-transmission that cooperates with the actuating element such that the drive spring is tensioned when the actuating element is moved in the first direction.