Syringe guide and vial holder

A syringe guide and vial holder facilitates the insertion of a syringe into a medicine vial and the subsequent withdrawal of medicine from the vial into the syringe. The syringe guide is constructed of a single piece of material and includes a syringe trough for slidingly supporting the syringe, a vial holder for holding the medicine vial, and a throat therebetween which defines a vial cap slot that limits the movement of the vial. The syringe trough includes a magnifying wall for magnifying the contents of and any indica on the syringe.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates generally to devices for aiding in the self use of 
syringes, and more particularly, to a guide for inserting a syringe into a 
vial or medicine bottle. 
When using a syringe to inject medicine, it is often desireable to provide 
a guide or other device to facilitate filling the syringe with the desired 
medicine from the medicine bottle. The guide helps align the syringe 
needle with the cap of the medicine vial and provides a more stable 
connection between the syringe and the medicine vial. While the use of 
syringe guides has facilitated the use of syringes, especially by 
non-medical personnel, the prior art syringe guides have left many areas 
available for improvement. 
For example, many prior art syringe guides have failed to include a 
magnifying lens in the syringe guide to magnify the syringe and the 
writing on it. The magnifying lens is especially helpful if the syringe 
guide is intended to be used for injecting medicines customarily used by 
people with poor or reduced eyesight or in low light environments. The 
magnification not only helps a user see the writing and numbers on the 
syringe, and therefore allows the proper volume of medicine to be 
withdrawn, but it also enhances the visibility of the entire syringe, thus 
illuminating any undesired air bubbles in the medicine solution. 
In addition, the construction of some prior art syringe guides has failed 
to allow easy extraction of generally all of the medicine in the medicine 
vial. The amount of medicine which is removed from the vial is determined 
by the depth of penetration of the needle into the vial. To remove the 
maximum contents in the vial, the needle should be inserted into the vial 
no further than the neck of the vial so that when the vial is inverted, as 
is typically done when filling a syringe, the needle will be immersed in 
the medicine regardless of the amount of medicine remaining in the vial. 
This limited penetration depth is especially advantageous given today's 
high cost of medicine and the consequent desire to avoid waste. While the 
depth of the needle can always be manually adjusted, a syringe guide which 
automatically limits the depth of penetration to the desired amount is 
especially helpful. 
Another area for improvement of syringe guides relates to their ease of 
cleaning. The repeated use of a syringe guide for administering medicine 
often tends to result in spills of the medicine on the syringe guide. When 
dry, the spills tend to be opaque and, therefore, are desirably washed 
off. Some prior art syringe guides, however, are constructed with air 
pockets in the syringe guide and cannot be immersed in water. If immersed, 
water droplets and/or condensation remains in the air pockets or spaces 
preventing proper viewing and use of the syringe on the syringe guide. 
This non-immersion requirement means that the syringe guide must be 
carefully washed, which makes the use of the syringe guide more 
burdensome. Such limited cleaning techniques can also fail to completely 
clean all medicine residue from the guide, thereby impairing visibility 
through the guide to the syringe or writing thereon, especially when the 
guide is designed to enhance visibility of the syringe. 
Prior art syringe guides have also suffered from having the medicine vial 
easily bumped off or out of place with respect to the guide. Such relative 
insecurity of the medicine vial retention thereby makes the syringe guide 
more difficult to use, and often necessitates a user having to separately 
hold the vial using both hands. If the vial must be separately held, the 
ease of using the syringe is diminished. 
It is also desireable that syringe guides be as inexpensive as possible to 
manufacture, be entirely transparent to enable viewing of the syringe and 
vial, and be easy to use. The ease of use is increased by both removing 
any closed apertures on the syringe guide through which the syringe must 
be carefully threaded and by designing the syringe guide such that the 
syringe easily slides on it. 
A need can therefore be seen for a new syringe guide which overcomes all of 
these disadvantages of the prior art, and fully takes into account the 
foregoing design considerations. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, the present invention provides a syringe guide and a vial 
holder which firmly holds a medicine vial and allows easy sliding movement 
of a syringe along the guide while limiting insertion of the needle into 
the vial and enhancing viewing of the syringe and any indicia thereon. 
A syringe guide and vial holder according to one aspect of the present 
invention includes a longitudinally extending syringe trough, a vial 
support, and a throat. The syringe trough, the vial support, and the 
throat are constructed in one piece of material with the throat disposed 
between the syringe trough and the vial support. The syringe trough is 
adapted to slidingly support a syringe and includes a transparent, 
magnifying wall which magnifies the syringe and any indicia thereon for 
easier visibility. The vial support defines a vial cavity which supports 
at least a portion of the medicine vial and provides resistance to the 
vial being bumped or knocked off of the syringe guide. The throat defines 
a retaining structure which is adapted to prevent longitudinal movement of 
the vial when the vial cap is engaged by the retaining structure. 
The syringe guide and vial holder may include a variety of additional 
features. The syringe guide and vial holder may include a slot defined in 
the throat which forms the retaining structure. The slot may additionally 
include a pair of lips allowing the slot to snappingly receive and retain 
the vial cap in the slot. The syringe trough may include a pair of 
longitudinally extending edges which support the syringe along a pair of 
contact lines and thereby enable the syringe to easily slide in the 
syringe trough. The syringe trough preferably supports the syringe a 
distance spaced away from the magnifying wall to allow the magnifying wall 
to magnify the syringe and any indicia thereon, preferably by at least two 
times. The syringe trough is also preferably dimensioned to prevent the 
needle on a syringe having a non-disposable needle tip from penetrating 
further into the vial than the neck of the vial. The limited penetration 
depth allows easier removal of generally all of the contents of the vial. 
A syringe guide and vial holder according to another aspect of the present 
invention includes a body of unitary construction defining a syringe 
trough, a vial support, and a throat disposed therebetween. The throat 
includes a slot which is adapted to snappingly receive the vial cap and 
retain the vial cap in the slot regardless of the orientation of the 
syringe guide and vial holder. The syringe guide and vial holder according 
to this aspect of the invention may also include any of the features 
discussed above, such as a completely transparent construction, a 
magnifying wall, support of the syringe on longitudinal edges, etc. 
The syringe guide and vial holder of the present invention improves the 
ease of use of prior known syringe guides and/or vial holders in several 
respects. The magnifying wall allows the numbers on the syringe and the 
contents of the syringe, including possible air bubbles, to be more easily 
seen. The syringe trough provides easy sliding of the syringe on the 
syringe guide toward and away from the vial. The retaining structure 
prevents the vial from moving, and therefore frees a user's hand or 
fingers from having to hold the vial while the syringe needle is inserted 
therein. The one piece construction of the syringe guide and the vial 
holder enables it to be economically manufactured and the lack of air 
pockets allows it to be easily washed by immersion in water or in an 
automatic dishwasher. The combination of these features provides a novel 
syringe guide which is both exceptionally easy to use and inexpensive to 
manufacture. 
These and other benefits, results, and objects of the present invention 
will be apparent to one skilled in the art, in light of the following 
specification when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The present invention will now be described with reference to the 
accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals correspond to like 
elements in the several drawings. A syringe guide and a vial holder 20 
according to one embodiment of the present invention is depicted in FIG. 1 
between a syringe 22 and a vial 24. Syringe guide and vial holder 20 is 
designed to receive and secure vial 24 at one end, and to slidingly 
receive syringe 22 at an opposite end. As shown in FIGS. 1, 9 and 11-12, 
syringe 22 is slidingly inserted into a penetrable, rubber or other 
similar section 23 centered in a formed metal cap 70 on the open end of 
neck 66 of vial 24 and the contents therein is withdrawn. Syringe guide 
and vial holder 20 is especially designed for use with 1-2.5 ml. syringes, 
though the dimensions of syringe guide and vial holder 20 can be altered 
accordingly to accommodate larger or smaller syringes. Syringe guide and 
vial holder 20 is also especially intended to aid in the 
self-administration of medicines such as for impotence, though it will be 
understood that it can be used in a wide variety of other medicinal 
applications. 
Syringe guide and vial holder 20 includes a single-piece body 26 having a 
syringe trough 28 at one end, a vial holder 30 at an opposite end, and a 
throat 32 therebetween (FIGS. 1-3). Body 26 is of one-piece, solid 
construction and includes no air pockets. Body 26 is preferably entirely 
transparent and can be made such as by injection molding from a wide 
variety of materials, although a clear, acrylic plastic is preferred. As 
shown in FIG. 10, syringe trough 28, vial holder 30 and throat 32 are 
aligned along a common axis in body 26 such that the needle of a syringe 
placed in syringe trough 28 will pass through throat 32, and be aligned 
for penetration into penetrable section 23 of the medicine vial. 
Longitudinally extending syringe trough 28 includes a magnifying wall 34 
and a pair of spaced side walls 36 extending away from magnifying wall 34 
at generally right angles (FIGS. 1-4). Side walls 36 each include an 
interior surface 38 and an exterior surface 42. An arcuate surface 44 is 
also defined in each side wall 36 between interior surface 38 and a top 
surface 40 of body 26. Interior surface 38 and arcuate surface 44 extend 
from a syringe end 46 on syringe guide and vial holder 20 to throat 32. 
Arcuate surface 44 defines an upper longitudinal edge 48 and a lower 
longitudinal edge 50. The radius of curvature of arcuate surfaces 44 is 
slightly greater than the intended radius of curvature of the cylindrical 
body of syringe 22. As shown in FIG. 10, with these different curvatures, 
syringe 22 will only contact syringe trough 28 along lower edges 50. The 
points of contact between syringe 22 and lower edge 50 define a pair of 
spaced, parallel contact lines. The supporting of syringe 22 by a pair of 
spaced contact lines defined by lower edges 50, instead of by a surface or 
pair of surfaces, enables syringe 22 to slide along syringe trough 28 
while contacting a smaller surface area. With a smaller surface area, the 
friction is less, and syringe 22, therefore, more easily slides along 
syringe trough 28. 
Vial holder 30 is defined in body 26 at a vial end 52 opposite syringe end 
46 (FIGS. 1-3 and 5). Vial support or holder 30 includes a vial cavity 54 
dimensioned to conform to the shape and contours of a standard medicine 
vial. In particular, vial cavity 54 includes a generally circular, 
cylindrical body support surface 56, an angled support surface 58, and a 
generally circular, cylindrical neck support surface 60. Body support 
surface 56 is generally configured to support a body 62 of vial 24. 
Surface 56 has a preferred length which is slightly less than the length 
of body 62 of vial 24 which enables the end of the vial to be grasped 
easily when removal is desired while still providing, secure support when 
vial 24 is mounted therein. Angled support surface 58 conforms generally 
to a curved top surface 64 on vial 24, and neck support surface 60 
generally conforms to and supports a neck 66 on vial 24. Body support 
surface 56, angled support surface 58, and neck support surface 60 are 
defined at a depth in body 26 sufficient to surround more than half the 
circumference of vial 24. Vial 24 is, therefore, firmly fixed and securely 
held in vial holder 30. To permit vial 24 to be received in vial holder 30 
at this depth, body support surface 56, angled support surface 58, and 
neck support surface 60 are semicircular in cross section at their deepest 
portion, and each include a straight, vertical surface portion 61 adjacent 
top surface 40 (FIG. 5). 
Throat 32 extends longitudinally between vial holder 30 and syringe trough 
28, and defines a vial cap slot 68 (FIGS. 1-3, and 6-8). Vial cap slot 68 
is generally semi-circular and of a radius sightly greater than the radius 
of annular cap 70 on vial 24 to permit cap 70 to fit therein. Because of 
the larger diameter of cap 70 on vial 24, slot 68 is deeper than neck 
support surface 60 (FIGS. 5 and 8). Vial cap slot 68 includes a pair of 
lips 72 defined on opposite sides of vial cap slot 68 adjacent a recessed 
top surface 74 (FIG. 6). Lips 72 extend inwardly and define a distance 
therebetween which is slightly smaller than the outside diameter of vial 
cap 70. Recessed top surface 74 is generally parallel to top surface 40, 
but indented into body 26 a small distance. By defining lips 72 adjacent 
recessed top surface 74, the slight vertical extension of lips 72 will not 
extend beyond top surface 40, and top surface 40 can therefore be entirely 
flat. The sides of slot 68 including lips 72 are resiliently flexible and 
permit cap 70 of vial 24 to be snapped past lips 72 and into vial cap slot 
68. When snapped in this fashion, vial 24 will remain in vial cavity 54 
regardless of the orientation of syringe guide and vial holder 20. In 
other words, it requires more force than the weight of vial 24 to remove 
vial 24 from its snapping engagement in vial cap slot 68. The force 
required to snap vial 24 out of vial cap slot 68, however, is not so great 
that it cannot be easily produced by users of all strengths and 
dexterities. The snapping engagement and consequent retention of vial 24 
into vial cap slot 68 provides a free hand for a user of syringe guide and 
vial holder 20 which would otherwise be required to hold vial 24 in place. 
This enables easier manipulation and use of a syringe in syringe guide and 
vial holder 20. The depth of vial cap slot 68 in body 26 is such that a 
needle 76 on syringe 22 which is resting in syringe trough 28 will 
penetrate the rubber portion 23 of cap 70 of vial 24 generally in its 
center (see FIG. 10). 
A cylindrical throat surface 78 extends from vial cap slot 68 to an angled 
trough surface 80 (FIG. 9). Angled trough surface 80 slopes downwardly to 
a generally flat, top or inner surface 82 of magnifying wall 34. Surface 
82 of magnifying wall 34 extends longitudinally from angled trough surface 
80 to syringe end 46. As can be seen in FIGS. 9, 10, 12, and 13, syringe 
trough 28 supports syringe 22 a spaced distance above top surface 82 of 
magnifying wall 34. This spaced distance provides a focal distance for the 
magnification of syringe 22 by magnifying wall 34. Magnifying wall 34 
includes a bottom arcuate surface 84 which acts like a lens for the 
magnification provided by magnifying wall 34. The focal distance of the 
syringe and the curvature of bottom arcuate surface 84 may be altered to 
provide different degrees of magnification of syringe 22, through a 
magnification of 2-3 times is preferred. The magnification of syringe 22 
is visible when viewed through magnifying wall 34 from below as shown in 
FIG. 11. 
To use syringe guide and vial holder 20, syringe 22 is placed in syringe 
trough 28 such that it rests against, and is supported by lower edges 50 
of side walls 36. Vial 24 is positioned in vial cavity 54 and cap 70 of 
vial 24 is snapped past lips 72 into vial cap slot 68. Syringe 22 is then 
slid toward vial 24 in syringe trough 28 on edges 50 until needle 76 of 
syringe 22 penetrates cap 70 of vial 24. When syringe 22 includes an 
integrally attached, permanent, non-disposable needle 76 instead of a 
separately disposable needle tip 90 (FIG. 13), the sliding movement of 
syringe 22 towards vial 24 will terminate when finger flanges 86 abut 
against syringe end 46 of syringe guide 20. When syringe guide and vial 
holder 20 is used with these syringes having non-disposable needle tips, a 
hub 88 on syringe 22 remains spaced from cap 70 of vial 24 because of the 
contact of finger flanges 86 against syringe end 46 (FIG. 12). The spacing 
of hub 88 of syringe 22 from cap 70 of vial 24 ensures that needle 76 does 
not penetrate further into vial 24 than the neck 66 of vial 24. This 
limited penetration ensures that, when vial 24 is held up side down, 
syringe 22 can remove substantially all of the medicine contained in vial 
24, thereby reducing any waste of the medicine. 
If syringe guide and vial holder 20 is used with a syringe 22' which 
includes a disposable needle tip 90 having needle 76', then syringe 22' 
can be slid towards vial 24 until hub 88' contacts cap 70 of vial 24 (FIG. 
13). The combined length of syringe 22' with disposable needle tip 90 is 
longer than that of syringe 22 with non-disposable hub 88 and needle 76. 
In such a case, needle 76' will penetrate into vial 24 a slightly greater 
distance, although nearly all of the contents of vial 24 can still be 
easily extracted via syringe 22. 
Regardless of which syringe 22 or 22' is used with syringe guide and vial 
holder 20, angled trough surface 80 remains spaced from and out of any 
contact with any part of the syringe. Any limitation on sliding movement 
of the syringe in trough 28 is provided by end surface 46 acting against 
finger flanges 86, or by needle tip 90 acting against penetrable section 
23 of vial cap 70. 
It will also be apparent that the preferred solid, one-piece construction 
of syringe guide and vial holder 20 from molded plastic such as acrylic 
enables easy cleaning simply by hand washing the entire guide by immersing 
it in water and gently washing with a mild, non-abrasive detergent, or by 
washing the guide in a conventional automatic dishwashing machine. In 
either case, no water, liquid, fog, steam or condensation will remain on 
any surface, all of which are easily accessible to be wiped clean and 
dried. Thus no condensation collects on any part, especially the surfaces 
of a magnifying wall 34, which condensation could otherwise impair 
visibility through and magnification by wall 34. 
While the present invention has been described in terms of the preferred 
embodiments discussed in the above specification, it will be understood by 
one skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to these 
particular preferred embodiments, but includes any and all such 
modifications that are within the spirit and scope of the present 
invention as defined in the appended claims.