Blood sampling devices

• US 9,795,333 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Owen Mumford
• Original Assignee: Owen Mumford
• Inventors: Nicholls, Clive, Hudson, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): McCrosky, David J
• Application Number:
  US13/978,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20140052024A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,118 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150022 for capillary blood or interstitial fluid
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150297 for piercing devices, i.e. devices ready to be used for lancing or piercing for piercing elements A61B5/150282, for driving devices A61B5/15029
• 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 5/150503 Single-ended needles hollow piercing element tip design A61B5/150396, needle sets for catheters A61M25/06, needles for bringing media into the body A61M5/32
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150549 Protectors removed by rotational movement, e.g. torsion or screwing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150618 Integrally moulded protectors, e.g. protectors simultaneously moulded together with a further component, e.g. a hub, of the piercing element
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150625 by using additional parts, e.g. clamping rings or collets
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/150717 manually removed
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/15111 Semi-automatically triggered, e.g. at the end of the cocking procedure, for instance by biasing the main drive spring or when reaching sufficient contact pressure, the piercing device is automatically triggered without any deliberate action by the user
• 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 5/15142 Devices intended for single use, i.e. disposable

Abstract

A blood sampling device includes a housing and a lancet supporting a lancet needle or tip, the lancet and needle being urged or urgeable in a pricking direction. A trigger mechanism is moveable to a fire position for releasing the lancet to travel in the pricking direction. A removable safety cap initially covers the lancet needle. The lancet has an initial position in which movement of the trigger mechanism to the fire position is blocked and an intermediate position in which the trigger mechanism may be moved to the fire position. The intermediate position is obtainable only on removal of the safety cap.

Claims

1. A blood sampling device comprising:

a housing (20);

a lancet body (30) movable within the housing (20), the lancet body (30) having an end that includes a sharp tip (36), the lancet body (30) having an initial pre-firing position, an intermediate armed position, and a final fired position with the sharp tip (36), after having protruded from a proximal end of the housing (20), is rebounded within the housing with the lancet body (30) forward of the intermediate armed position;

an urging mechanism (40) that urges the lancet body and the sharp tip (36) to move, within the housing, forwardly in a pricking direction from the initial pre-firing position, to the intermediate armed position, and then to the final fired position;

a trigger mechanism (22) comprised of a trigger member (24) moveable from an initial rest position to a fire position where the trigger mechanism releases the lancet body (30) from the intermediate armed position to travel in the pricking direction to the final fired position, wherein,

i) with the lancet body (30) in the initial pre-firing position, the trigger member (24) is engaged with an element (35) of the lancet body (30) such that the element (35) of the lancet body blocks movement of the trigger member (24) from the rest position to the fire position thereby restraining movement of the trigger member (24) and preventing operation of the trigger mechanism, and

ii) with the lancet body (30) in the intermediate armed position, the trigger member (24) is no longer engaged with the element (35) of the lancet body (30) and operation of the trigger member (24) moves the trigger member (24) from the initial rest position to the fire position where the trigger mechanism (22) releases the lancet body (30) from the intermediate armed position to have the urging mechanism move the lancet body (30) and the sharp tip (36) forwardly in the pricking direction to the final fired position; and

a removable safety cap (32) that at least partially covers the sharp tip (36), the safety cap (32) being at least partially located within the housing (20), the safety cap (32) holding the lancet body (30) in the initial pre-firing position and restraining the lancet body (30) from moving, within the housing, in the pricking direction,

wherein removal of the safety cap (32) exposes the sharp tip (36) and allows the urging mechanism (40) to move the lancet body (30) from the initial pre-firing position to the intermediate armed position where the device is armed and ready for use by operation of the trigger member (24),

wherein the lancet body (30) can only move into said intermediate armed position when the safety cap has been removed,

wherein the intermediate armed position of the lancet body (30) is maintained by engagement of a pawl (28) of the trigger mechanism (22) with a latch surface (37) of the lancet body, and operation of the trigger member (24) moving into the fire position lifts the pawl (28) from the latch surface (37) thereby allowing the urging mechanism (40) to move the lancet body (30) and the sharp tip (36) with the sharp tip (36) protruding from the proximal end of the housing (20), and

wherein the trigger member (24) is comprised of a push button (24) hinged about a hinge region (21), the push button including a part (26) that engages with a boss (35) on the lancet body (30), said engagement of the part (26) with the boss (35) on the lancet body (30) limiting movement of the push button (24) from the initial rest position.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said trigger member (24) is mounted to move generally transversely to a forward path of the movement of the lancet body (30) in the pricking direction.

3. A device according to claim 2, wherein said trigger member (24) is mounted for rocking movement relating to said housing (29).

4. A device according to claim 1, wherein,

the urging mechanism (40) includes a drive spring (40),

the cap (32) is removable in the pricking direction and, when removed, allows the lancet body (30) to be urged in the pricking direction by the drive spring (40) into the intermediate armed position ready for further urging by the drive spring when the trigger mechanism (22) is operated.

5. A device according to claim 4, wherein said drive spring (40) comprises a compression spring.

6. A device according to claim 1, wherein the element (35) of the lancet body (30) is a first abutment surface (35) that, when the lancet body (30) is in said initial pre-firing position, engages with a second abutment surface (26) of the trigger member (24) to prevent movement of the trigger member (24) from the initial rest position into the fire position.

7. A device according to claim 6, wherein, when the cap (32) is removed, the first abutment surface (35) on the lancet body (30) moves with the lancet body (30) from the initial pre-firing position to the intermediate armed position, whereupon the respective first and second abutment surfaces (35, 26) are no longer engageable and movement of the trigger member (24) into the fire position is possible.

8. A device according to claim 1, wherein the cap (32) has

i) an externally graspable portion (31) external to the housing,

ii) a stem (33) substantially within the housing, the stem at least partially covering the sharp tip and extending forwardly to merge with the externally graspable portion (31), and

iii) a frangible connection (34) that connects the stem to the end of the lancet body (30).

9. A device according to claim 8, wherein,

said stem (33) includes one or more projections (39) which extend in a plane perpendicular to the pricking direction,

the housing (20) includes an aperture (29) complementarily shaped to the one or more projections (39), and

the cap (32) is captured in the aperture by each projection (39) abutting the housing, but releasable from said aperture (29) upon twisting the cap to align each projection (39) with the aperture (29).

10. A device according to claim 9, wherein each projection includes a pair of opposed barbs (39) on either side of the stem (33) and the aperture is in the form of a slot (29) which allows a forward passage of the barbs through the slot in one orientation of the barbs but prevents the forward passage of the barbs through the slot in other orientations.