Needle storage apparatus and method

A hollow guard having a wall for receiving and enclosing a medical needle after use. The guard has an open end to allow a needle to be inserted into the guard. An adhesive member has a section typically permanently attached to the wall, with portions of the adhesive member being spaced from the wall, for temporary attachment to a patient's skin to secure the guard on the patient's skin.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In Utterberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,311 a guard or storage apparatus for a 
winged intravascular (I.V.) needle and hub assembly is disclosed, in which 
the needle guard is a hollow, generally tubular structure which is 
typically placed behind a needle emplaced in a blood vessel of a patient, 
with the guard surrounding the connecting tube of the needle. Then, to 
withdraw the needle from the patient, the above cited patent teaches the 
step of manually pressing an "anchor" which extends forwardly from the 
hollow guard. The needle may then be withdrawn from the patient so that it 
slides into the stationary, hollow guard, with the wings of the needle hub 
sliding through a pair of opposed slots in the guard. The guard than locks 
the needle in the enclosed position inside of the guard, so that the 
assembly may be handled without danger of injury from the needle point, 
which is stored in a position recessed within the guard. 
As the above technique is accomplished, the hand which is pressing against 
the anchor of the hollow guard is in a position forward of the needle as 
the needle is retracted into the guard. While that is basically safe under 
the specific conditions of operation, it would be desirable to provide a 
system operated by one hand, where neither hand has to operate the guard 
from a position in front of the needle until after the needle has been 
completely enclosed within the hollow needle guard. Also, it is desirable 
to provide a system in which I.V. needles can be safely withdrawn from 
engagement with the patient into a hollow guard in those circumstances 
where the hollow guard does not carry a forward projecting anchor. 
By this invention, the above objectives can be achieved. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with this invention, a hollow guard is provided having a 
sidewall for receiving and enclosing a medical needle after its use for 
supplying medicament or blood to a patient. The guard has an open end to 
allow a needle to be inserted into the guard. The guard also has a 
longitudinal axis, and an adhesive member having a section which is 
permanently attached to the sidewall. The adhesive member may be adhesive 
tape. 
Portions of the adhesive member may be spaced from the sidewall, and may be 
temporarily attached to a patient's skin to secure the guard on the 
patient's skin. 
Preferably, the section of the tape which is attached to the sidewall is 
permanently attached thereto, typically with a first, permanent adhesive 
for securing the tape section to the sidewall. The spaced tape sections 
may carry a second adhesive, typically of different formulation from the 
first adhesive, suitable for temporary, releasable contact with the skin. 
It is also preferred for the tape to have adhesive layer portions spaced 
from the guard which are covered by a removable, protective sheet of 
generally conventional design to protect the adhesive layers thereof until 
they are removed for use. 
The section of the adhesive tape which is preferably permanently attached 
to the hollow guard is also preferably located centrally along the length 
of the tape, to provide tape portions on opposed sides of the guard for 
the best temporary skin attachment. Also, the sidewall preferably defines 
a pair of opposed slots for slidingly receiving wings of a needle hub as 
the needle is inserted into the guard. 
One may remove a medical needle from a patient by placing the hollow guard 
onto the skin of a patient adjacent the needle, and applying an adhesive 
member positioned transversely across the hollow guard to the skin of a 
patient, to temporarily secure the guard on the patient's skin. One then 
inserts the needle into the hollow guard while withdrawing the needle from 
the skin and preferably removing the hollow guard from the skin with the 
needle inside the guard. By this invention, this can be accomplished in a 
manual manner without placing a hand in front of the needle until the 
needle is safely secured inside of the guard.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, a fistula needle 10 having a hub 12 with 
wings 13 is shown as a conventional design, attached to a length of 
flexible tubing 14 and carrying a needle sheath 16, which is in the form 
of a hollow tube through which the tubing 14 extends. Such a fistula 
needle is conventionally used in hemodialysis procedures, while similar 
needles are also used in a large variety of other medical procedures. 
Tubular housing 16 may be of a conventional design, having slots 18 on 
opposed wall portions of sheath 16 for receiving the wings 13 of needle 
and hub 10, 12 as the needle is retracted into sheath 16, to safely 
enclose the point 20 of the needle. 
As is conventionally practiced and disclosed in the previously cited 
Utterberg patent, when it is desired to withdraw needle 10 from the skin 
21, sheath 16 is secured in position by manually holding or pressing a 
forwardly projecting "anchor" of the type shown in the previously cited 
patent. Then, one may pull on tubing 14 to cause needle 10 to withdraw 
from the skin, and the entire assemblage 10, 12 to slide back into sheath 
16, with wings 13 extending outwardly through slots 18, as shown 
particularly in FIGS. 2 and 3 in dotted lines. 
In accordance with this invention, to facilitate the above process, said 
hollow guard or sheath 16 carries a length of adhesive tape 22 having a 
first section 24 which is permanently attached to upper wall 26 of sheath 
or guard 16. This permanent attachment may be accomplished by the use of a 
permanent adhesive such as epoxy or the like, being coated on adhesive 
member 22 in area 24. Adhesive member 22 is typically a piece of adhesive 
tape, bonded at first, central section in permanent manner to sheath or 
guard 16. 
The outer portions 28 of adhesive tape 22 are shown in FIG. 1 to extend 
substantially laterally from hollow guard 16, to be spaced from the wall 
26 thereof, and extending transversely to the axis of the guard 16, which 
extends substantially in the direction of needle 10 as shown. 
The respective, spaced adhesive tape portions 28 may be coated with a 
temporary, medically acceptable adhesive 30 of known type for temporary 
attachment of adhesive tape 22 to the patient's skin. Thus, when this is 
accomplished, sheath 16 is held in position on the patient's skin in the 
desired location without any need for manual retention of it. Also, each 
of the temporary adhesive layer portions 30 may be conventionally covered 
by a removable protective sheet 32 in the normal manner for adhesive 
bandages, to preserve the temporary adhesive layers 30 until they are to 
be used. 
Hollow guard 16 thus may be manufactured with adhesive tape 22 permanently 
attached to it and extending laterally across the guard 16. Removable, 
protective sheets 32 may then be removed from the outwardly projecting 
portions of tape 22, and used to secure guard 16 to the skin in a desired 
location on the patient during a dialysis or other procedure. Through most 
of the dialysis procedure, this desired position may be substantially 
spaced from needle and hub 10, 12, but with guard 16 being threaded on 
tube 14. Then, at the end of dialysis, the tape portions 28 may be removed 
from the skin; the guard advanced to the desired position shown, and the 
guard 16 being retaped with the same tape to the skin again. Then, needle 
10 can be withdrawn from the skin, entering into guard 16, with the use of 
only one hand to pull tube 14 until the needle point 20 is recessed within 
the guard, for protection of all who handle it. 
Thus, a guard without a forward "anchor" may be safely used. 
However, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, another hollow guard or sheath 36 is 
shown, being basically similar to the guard of FIGS. 1-4 except as 
otherwise indicated herein. 
FIG. 6 shows the same needle and hub system 10, 12, having wings 13, and 
with guard 36 carried in surrounding relation to tube 14. 
In this embodiment, an overlying flap 38 extends forwardly from the 
needle-facing end of guard 36 to overlie at least a portion of needle 10 
prior to withdrawing of said needle into the hollow guard. Flap 38 can 
thus provide added protection to the user against being accidentally stuck 
by needle 10 as it is being withdrawn, since the flap serves as an 
overlying barrier to shield the needle point from contact with hands or 
the like that may be in the vicinity as the needle is being withdrawn. 
Such a flap may be used on any of the needle guards disclosed by this 
invention. 
Also, in this embodiment, hollow, tubular guard 36 defines a rearwardly 
projecting anchor member 40 extending rearwardly from the bottom wall 42 
of the tubular guard. The presence of rearwardly projecting member 40 
permits manual or other retention or pressing by means of a finger 43, a 
transverse piece of tape 44 or the like, or both as shown in FIGS. 5 and 
6. Thus, the hollow guard may be held in position by the rearwardly 
projecting anchor 40, to hold hollow guard 36 in position on the skin 21 
as the needle 10 is being withdrawn into the hollow guard. 
FIGS. 8 and 9 show a slightly modified hollow guard 36a, which is of 
substantially similar design to hollow guard 36, having forwardly 
extending flap 38a from the top wall, a pair of slots 39a on opposed 
walls, of similar design to the previous embodiment, and a rearwardly 
projecting anchor member 40a, which is shown to be of truncated triangular 
shape, with sides thereof extending laterally outwardly from the balance 
of tubular guard 36a, to facilitate attachment by adhesive tape lengths 
44a. 
Alternatively, for the embodiments of FIGS. 5 through 9, the lengths of 
adhesive tape 44, 44a may have a central portion that is permanently 
adhered to rearwardly projecting anchor 40 or 40a, with end portions that 
project outwardly from the anchor being coated with a temporary, 
skin-compatible adhesive in a manner similar to that discussed in FIG. 1. 
Removable cover layers may be applied to the temporary adhesive portions 
on the end sections of the tape lengths 44, 44a, to be removed when guard 
36 or 36a is to be placed on the patient. Thus, the guard is temporarily 
secured to the patient to permit one handed withdrawal of needle 10 in the 
manner previously described. The adhesive members 40, 40a may be 
permanently secured to the guard, which greatly facilitates the 
convenience of the procedure. 
Referring to FIG. 7, another embodiment of the guard of this invention is 
shown, in which guard 36b is of similar structure to guards 36, 36a except 
that it carries no rearwardly projecting anchor member. The bottom wall 
42b carries, in this embodiment, a length of double sided adhesive tape 
46, extending along most of the length of bottom wall 42b from end to end 
of guard 36b. Thus, tape 46 adheres firmly and permanently to bottom wall 
42b, and displays an underside 48 which also carries a temporary skin 
adhesive. Removable release liner 50 may be peeled off of the bottom 
adhesive layer 48, so that guard 36b may be adhered in removable manner to 
the skin of a patient in the desired position, so that one handed needle 
withdrawal can take place without necessarily touching guard 36b, as in 
the previous embodiments. 
However, if desired, flap 41, used as a shield against needle 10 as 
previously described, may define a transverse line of bending weakness 42, 
so that one may manually bend flap 41 downwardly with a finger pressing 
adjacent its outer end 44, to press a gauze pad that conventionally 
overlies the skin entry site for needle 10. Thus, flap 40 in this instance 
is being used as an anchor in a manner similar to that described in the 
previously cited patent, which at the same time flap 40 provides 
protection to that finger which is pressing the needle entry site as the 
needle is withdrawn. This pressure is desirable to minimize bleeding after 
withdrawal of the needle. 
Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11, hollow guard 36c may be of identical design 
to the previous hollow guard 36b except for the manner in which adhesive 
retention is accomplished. 
In this embodiment, as in the previous embodiments, the opposed slots 39 c 
define a relatively wide slot end portion 52 adjacent the forward, 
needle-facing end of guard 36c. A lower surface of widened slot end 
portion carries an adhesive member 56 (typically adhesive tape) which 
extends laterally beyond the width of hollow guard 36c, as particularly 
shown in FIG. 11. Thus, outer portions 58 of the adhesive member or tape 
can temporarily stick to the patient in the manner of typical tape, for 
retention of the hollow guard. The central portion 60 of adhesive member 
56 may be attached by a permanent adhesive to the lower surface or "jaw" 
area 54. Removable release sheets may be provided to the adhesive of areas 
58 as desired, to provide a product that is ready to use without the need 
to find and apply adhesive tape to it. 
The above has been offered for illustrative purposes only and is not 
intended to limit the scope of the invention of this application, which is 
as defined in the claims below.