Abstract
An improved hypodermic needle featuring a tip with an aperture that is not axially aligned with the shaft of the needle designed to increase the success rate of needle insertion for placing a guidewire by reducing the incidence of complications such as vessel wall injury or dissection and distal embolization and providing the physician with greater feedback confidence by giving more accurate bleed-back from the true lumen of the vessel.
Claims
1. An improved needle apparatus for facilitating intra-arterial/intravenous line placement, said apparatus comprising: a hub for facilitating a physician's grasp; a needle shaft with both a proximal terminus and a distal terminus, and a needle tip featuring an aperture for egress of a guidewire; wherein said hub is affixed to the proximal end of said needle shaft and said tip is affixed to the distal terminus of said needle shaft such that a guidewire may ingress the proximal terminus of said needle shaft, be advanced through said needle shaft, and egress through the aperture in said tip; wherein said aperture is non-axially aligned with said needle shaft; wherein said needle tip is shaped such that a guidewire cannot be advanced to a more distal point than said aperture.
2. As apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said hub further comprises a directional indicator in a fixed orientation with said aperture such that the radial location of the aperture can be determined from the position of said directional indicator.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] The accompanying drawings illustrate various exemplary implementations and are part of the specification. The illustrated implementations are proffered for purposes of example not for purposes of limitation. Illustrated elements will be designated by numbers. Once designated, an element will be identified by the identical number throughout. Illustrated in the accompanying drawing(s) is at least one of the best mode embodiments of the present disclosure. In such drawing(s):
[0030] FIG. 1 is a cross-section view of the distal portion an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled shown properly inserted into a patient's vessel lumen for context;
[0031] FIG. 2 is a cross-section view of the distal portion an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needle featuring a “short” conically shaped needle tip with an non-axially aligned aperture for guidewire egress;
[0032] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needle featuring an exemplar hub to facilitate the physician's grasp and manipulation:
[0033] FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of the distal portion an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a beveled and angled needle tip with an non-axially aligned aperture for the guidewire egress shown properly inserted into a patient's vessel lumen for context;
[0034] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the distal portion of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a beveled and angled needle tip with an non-axially aligned aperture for the guidewire egress;
[0035] FIG. 6 is a plan view of the distal portion of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a beveled and angled needle tip with an non-axially aligned aperture for guidewire egress illustrating that the internal surface of the tip is shaped to direct the guidewire to the aperture;
[0036] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the distal portion of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a conically shaped needle tip with extra wide non-axially aligned aperture for the guidewire egress
[0037] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the distal portion of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a beveled needle tip with a non-axially aligned aperture for the guidewire egress located on the beveled surface;
[0038] FIG. 9 is plan view of the distal portion of an exemplary embodiment of the presently disclosed improved hypodermic needled featuring a “long” conical shaped beveled needle tip with an non-axially aligned aperture for the guidewire egress;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT
[0039] The above described drawing figures illustrate multiple exemplary embodiments of the presently disclosed apparatus and its many features in at least one of its preferred, best mode embodiments, which is further defined in detail in the following description. Those having ordinary skill in the art may be able to make alterations and modifications to what is described herein without departing from its spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, it must be understood that what is illustrated is set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as a limitation in the scope of the present apparatus or its many features.
[0040] Described now in detail is an improved hypodermic needle fashioned to increase the success rate of needle insertion for the purpose of placing an intra-arterial/intravenous line by eliminating common challenges and providing physicians with greater feedback confidence.
[0041] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the distal portion of the presently disclosed apparatus 100 shown properly inserted into a patient's vessel lumen for practical context. The needle shaft 110 is shown affixed to a needle tip 130 which features an aperture 120 for the egress of a guidewire, which is also illustrated for context. The particular needle tip 130 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a “short” conical shaped tip 130 designed to be sharp enough to easily penetrate the skin and subcutaneous tissue. As the solid tip is the distal most terminus of the apparatus, it will provide a more tactical feel of the arterial pulsation to assist the physician as it first touches the artery. The presently disclosed apparatus can feature a variety of needle tips 130 so long as the aperture 120 is not axially aligned to the needle shaft 110.
[0042] FIG. 2 is a perspective view the distal portion of the same embodiment featured in the contextual illustration of FIG. 1 and further illustrates features that are important to realizing the advantages of the presently disclosed innovative design such as the aperture 120 that is not axially aligned with the needle shaft 110 and the shape of the internal surface 140 of the needle tip 130 that prevents a guidewire from being advanced past the aperture 120 and/or directs the guidewire to the aperture 120. This is important because if a guidewire is allowed to be advanced past the aperture 120 then the guidewire could get trapped in the needle tip 130 or in dead end area past the aperture 120 preventing the physician from successfully advancing the guidewire through the aperture 120 and into the patient vessel lumen.
[0043] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the entire exemplar embodiment also featured in FIGS. 1 and 2. The proximal end of the embodiment 100, not previously shown, illustrates an exemplar embodiment of the hub 150 designed to ergonomically lit the hand of the physician to facilitate the physician's grasp and manipulation. The hub 150 also features a directional indicator 160 to keep the physical apprised as to the orientation of the aperture 120 even after insertion. This is especially important during high-angle insertions or antigrade insertions where the orientation of the aperture 120 is not necessarily immediately apparent from the angle of the apparatus 100. Both the hub 150 and directional indicator 160 can take on many different forms so long as the features can serve their respective functions.
[0044] FIG. 4 is a contextual illustration similar to FIG. 1 featuring the distal portion of an exemplar embodiment inserted into a patient's vessel also depicting a guidewire advanced through a non-axial aperture. The embodiment 100 illustrated in FIG. 4 differs from the embodiment 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 in that the tip 130 in the embodiment 100 illustrated in FIG. 4 features a beveled sharpened tip 130 with an opposing non-axial aperture 120.
[0045] FIG. 5 shows a magnified partial view of the same embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 such that it is apparent that the beveled tip 130 in this particular exemplar embodiment is affixed to the needle shaft 110 in an non-axial or angled manner. In certain circumstances, the angled mounting of the needle tip 130 may allow the physician the ability to insert the apparatus 100 at a higher angle than with legacy needles. Such embodiment variations are possible without departing from the spirit of the novel innovation or the associated advantages. FIG. 6 is a plan view that further illustrates the nonsymmetrical shape of the internal surface 140 of the tip 130 which is especially shaped to direct an advancing guidewire toward the aperture 120 thereby ensuring smooth egress.
[0046] FIGS. 7 and 8 feature further variations of the presently disclosed embodiment 100, including a “short” conical tip 130 with a “wide” non-axially aligned aperture 120 (FIG. 7) and a beveled tip 130 with and aperture 120 located on the beveled surface (FIG. 8). In each embodiment, the aperture 120 in non-axially aligned with the needle shaft 110 and the internal surface 140 of the needle tip 130 is shaped such that an guidewire cannot advance through the needle shaft 110 past the aperture 120.
[0047] FIG. 9 illustrates one further exemplar embodiment in which the needle tip 130 is a “long” conical shape which is sharper and can penetrate flesh with greater easy than the “short” conical shape of the needle tips 130 featured in FIGS. 1, 2, and 7. The shape of the needle tip in the illustrative exemplar are is not indicative of limits of the presently disclosed innovation, the needle tip can take on many forms so long as the aperture 120 for guidewire egress is non-axial to the needle shaft 110 and the internal surface 140 of the needle tip prevents a guidewire from advancing through the apparatus 100 past the aperture 120. Here, the exemplar embodiment 100 illustrated in FIG. 9 features an aperture 120 that is very close to the needle tip 130 but it is still positioned non-axially to the needle shaft 110.
[0048] The enablements described in detail above are considered novel over the prior art of record and are considered critical to the operation of at least one aspect of the apparatus and its method of use, and to the achievement of the above-described objectives. The words used in this specification to describe the instant embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification: structure, material, or acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. Thus, if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word(s) describing the element.
[0049] The definitions of the words or drawing elements described herein are meant to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth, but all equivalent structures, materials or acts for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements described and its various embodiments or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim.
[0050] Changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalents within the scope intended and its various embodiments. Therefore, substitutions, now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art, are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements. This disclosure is thus meant to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted, and also what incorporates the essential ideas.
[0051] The scope of this description is to be interpreted only in conjunction with the appended claims and it is made clear, here, that each named inventor believes that the claimed subject matter is what is intended to be patented.
