Infusion needle attachment

An infusion needle attachment which, although covering the infusion needle protruding from below, so as to effectively and desirably mask it from view at the injection site, is nevertheless also effectively used to guide the unseen needle into position, since a flap finger grip thereof is in the same plane as the needle and the user is thereby readily able to judge the desired location at which the point of the needle should make physical contact preparatory to the subcutaneous administration of a medicament to a patient using said needle.

The present invention relates generally to infusion needle assemblies of 
the type using a needle-attached member for guiding and holding an 
infusion needle at its injection site, as exemplified by the needle 
assemblies of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,064,648 and 3,856,020, and more 
particularly to improvements for the needle-attached member of such an 
assembly which does not inhibit the proper and accurate placement of the 
needle, and yet in use after such placement affords little or no 
visualization of the needle beneath the patient's skin, with significant 
beneficial pyschological effect on the patient. Said improvements are 
noteworthy in other respects, as will be described in greater detail 
subsequently. 
It is already well known, as exemplified by prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,020, 
that an injection or infusion needle can be effectively guided into 
position by using as a finger grip a suitable member attached to the 
needle. The prior art needle-attached member typically has wings or 
lateral portions that are folded together and provide a convenient finger 
grip by which the needle is readily manipulated preparatory to being 
inserted into the patient. While generally effective, these prior art 
grips rely on visualization of the needle protruding therefrom to assist 
in the positioning thereof. Consequently, at the injection site there 
continues to be visualization of the needle beneath the patient's skin, 
which to some is psychologically upsetting, requiring the use of an 
appropriate bandage covering or the like. 
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved 
infusion needle attachment overcoming the foregoing and other shortcomings 
of the prior art. Specifically, it is an object to provide a 
needle-attached member, by which an unseen needle, both during placement 
and thus also when in its injected position, is nevertheless accurately 
guided into said injected position. 
As already noted, what is proposed herein is intended for use in 
combination with an infusion needle for achieving subcutaneous placement 
thereof incident to the dispensing therethrough of a medicament to a 
patient. Said improvement is an infusion needle attachment, and the 
embodiment thereof demonstrating objects and advantages of the present 
invention includes a disk-like body of a selected size adequate for 
delineating an operative area for making provision for the handling and 
for the positioning of the infusion needle. A hollow tubular member 
bounding a compartment for receiving said infusion needle is disposed in a 
peripheral location in said operative area and at an angular orientation 
in relation thereto so as to cause an infusion needle seated in said 
compartment to project at said angular orientation in depending relation 
from beneath the body. Further, in a medial location in said operative 
area there is provided an upstanding finger grip means foldably attached 
to the body along a line coincident with the center of the body and in 
aligned relation to the projecting infusion needle. As a result of the 
aligning orientations of the finger grip means and of the infusion needle, 
it has been found to be a relatively easy task to effectively guide the 
infusion needle into its required subcutaneous position even though the 
body is in covering relation thereover masking the presence of the needle 
during positioning. Said body also masks the needle after it has been 
positioned.

Intended primarily as an improvement over the above referred to prior art 
needle-attached members, there is described and illustrated herein a 
member, also used in practice by being attached to an infusion needle, 
that is capable, in a unique manner, of assuring the correct angle and 
depth of penetration of the infusion needle in subcutaneous tissue. 
Equally important, and as will be described in detail subsequently, the 
within improved attachment for the infusion needle also effectively, at 
the injection site, masks the needle from view and this, in practice, has 
been found to provide a significant psychological advantage in obtaining 
the patient's compliance with requirements which enhance the use of the 
infusion needle for delivery of a medicament. That is, one of the 
significant advantages of the within attachment is that in use there is 
little or no visualization of the needle beneath the patient's skin, and 
this has proven to have a significant beneficial psychological effect on 
the patient. 
To achieve the aforesaid and other benefits, there is provided according to 
the present invention a member, generally designated 20, intended in its 
contemplated use to be in attached relation to an infusion needle 22 which 
itself is attached in an appropriate manner to tubing 24 which, in a well 
understood manner, is connected to a reservoir, such as a syringe or 
pouch, containing a source of medicament or fluid for subcutaneous 
administration to a patient. Member 20, in a preferred embodiment, has a 
disk-like body 24 which delineates an operative area on the upper surface 
thereof, which area in terms of size and accessibility is both appropriate 
and adequate for components, as will now be described, which facilitate 
the referred to handling and placement of the infusion needle 22. 
More particularly, one of the components is a tubular member 26 which, 
critical to the within invention, is advantageously located at the 
periphery of disk 24, as at 28, and is set at a selected angular 
orientation, which is typically approximately 30 degrees, as illustrated. 
The significance of the location 28 for the tubular member 28 is perhaps 
best appreciated by reference to FIG. 3. More particularly, said 
peripheral location 28 effectively locates the entire extent of disk 24 
forward of the needle-receiving tube 26, and thus in an advantageous 
position to mask the presence of the needle 22 which projects in depending 
relation from beneath the disk 24. This is to be contrasted with what 
exists in the prior art as illustrated in FIG. 1 wherein the prior art 
needle 10 projects beyond the positioning member 12 and thus is visible at 
the injection site unless, of course, it is otherwise masked from view by 
a tape or bandage. In this connection, the presence of the injection end 
of needle 10 in the patient is due primarily to the assembly of needle 10 
in a central location of attachement 12, a location undoubtedly believed 
necessary to use in order to enable the lateral portions or wings 14 and 
16 to be gripped as in the manner illustrated in FIG. 1. It should be 
noted that it is not an acceptable solution to merely enlarge the size of 
member 12 so that it extends in covering relation over the prior art 
needle 10, since this will produce an unwieldy and difficult-to-handle 
size in the member 12. 
As may perhaps best be appreciated from FIG. 2, the internal construction 
for the tubular member 26 will be understood to consist of a through bore 
30 sized to accommodate the cylindrical infusion needle 22 and a 
larger-diameter counter bore 32 sized to accommodate a cylindrical tube 
25. At the intersection of counter bore 32 with the through bore 30 there 
is of course presented a shoulder 34 which, in a well understood manner, 
during the injection of the assembly of needle and tube 22, 25 in the 
internal compartment 30, 32 formed within the tubular member 26 
effectively serves as a stop or seat 34 for the larger diameter tube 25. 
Thus, shoulder 34 effectively limits the extent to which the infusion 
needle 22 per se projects beyond the undersurface of the disk 24. As a 
result, shoulder 34 thus effectively correspondingly limits the depth of 
penetration of the infusion needle during its placement in subcutaneous 
tissue 38. 
Still referring to FIG. 3, it should also be readily appreciated that the 
angular orientation of tubular member 26 is correspondingly imparted to 
infusion needle 22, said angle, herein denoted by the reference numeral 
36, being typically approximately 30 degrees. 
Unlike the prior art attachment member used in the manner illustrated in 
FIG. 1, member 20 hereof does not require the folding together of lateral 
portions, an operational requirement which, in any event, would not be 
particularly desirable since it might modify the angle of entry 36 of the 
needle 22. Rather, and in accordance with the present invention, it is 
more desirable that the angle 36 be maintained between the needle 22 and 
the flat disk 24 so that the needle 22 is properly guided into its 
injection position at said angle 36. Thus, in accordance with the present 
invention, member 20 is provided with other gripping means. More 
particularly, said means, designated 40, consists of a flap 40 
advantageously located, as is perhaps best illustrated in FIG. 4, along a 
line which is coincident with the diameter of the disk 24. Also as best 
illustrated in FIG. 4, flap 40 and needle 22 are in aligned relation, and 
this contributes to effective placement or guiding of the needle into an 
infusion site, even though needle 22 is essentially hidden below the disk 
24. That is, the plane of flap 40 is the same as that of needle 22 and 
this the user is well cognizant of during placement of the needle, and is 
thereby readily able to judge the exact location at which the point of the 
needle 22 will make physical contact with the tissue 38. 
After placement of the assembly 20 of the needle and its cooperating 
attachment 22, 24, an adhesive strip 42 is advantageously placed 
thereover, as in the manner illustrated in FIG. 5, to cause the folding of 
flap 40 flat against the disk 24, and the disk 24 to take on or conform in 
shape to the patient's anatomy at the injection site 38. 
While the embodiment above described in connection with FIGS. 2-5 is 
preferred, there are of course modifications that can be made thereto, 
that are within the contemplation of the present invention. As an example, 
disk 24 may be constructed to contain a pocket which should be filled with 
a topical antiseptic which would come into direct contact with the user's 
skin, and/or the construction material of the disk and flap 24, 40 could 
be a suitable flexible plastic, rather than an elastomeric, and still 
allow the folded and shape-conforming condition depicted in FIG. 5. Also, 
to assist the adhesive strip 42 in holding disk 24 against the patient, 
the bottom surface of the disk 24 can advantageously be provided with an 
adhesive coat that is exposed, when needed during positioning, upon 
removal of a backing strip. In other respects as well, a latitude of 
modification, change and substitution is intended in the foregoing 
disclosure and in some instances some features of the invention will be 
employed without a corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, it is 
appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner 
consistent with the spirit and scope of the invention herein.