Patent Publication Number: US-2004040873-A1

Title: Medical container for storage and disposal

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] This invention relates to a medical container for storage and disposal to count and store used surgical needles, gauze pieces, removed stones and organ parts, and then to preserve or dispose those substances.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART  
       [0002] There have been many proposals for surgical needle counters to count used needles, wherein used needles are adsorbed and fixed with flat magnets or stickers and such, or insert the needles on sponges and such. There also have been proposals for gauze piece counters in which gauze pieces are placed inside a hollow ditch made on resin-made plane plates.  
       [0003] Stones and organs removed from a human body are usually placed on petri dishes or kidney basins, and there have not been any proposals for containers to exclusively count and preserve extracted stones and organs.  
       SUMMARY OF THIS INVENTION  
       [0004] When needles, gauze pieces, stones, and organ pieces are stored in a container, there are risks that the container may be knocked over and toppled during surgery if the structure of the container is an open-hole type only to drop those substances inside the container, and there are also dangers of infection and of loss of the substances.  
       [0005] There are many substances that requires counting and storing during a surgery, but those substances have different shapes and forms, so a container with one uniform design had not served the objective of satisfying the needs to handle all of those substances.  
       [0006] It is idealistic to contain the used needles, gauze pieces, stones and organ pieces inside a container which can be sealed up, and then conduct reconfirmation procedures or the container to handled by any outside person after all risks of infection and such are totally excluded.  
       [0007] This invention is composed of a main box and a lid, wherein the structure is made so that the inside of the square shaped main box is divided lengthwise and breadthwise by partition walls, a flap lid which opens and closes is applied on the top part of each divided stock space, and each flap lid bends inwards when a substance is pushed on the lid, and when the substance drops into the stock space the flap lid bends back to its original position with its own resilient force and thence the flap lid closes. Each flap lid has a number on the top for visual confirmation for counting or distinguishing each space. The side walls of the main box, the partition walls, the flap lids and the main lid are all made of transparent resin. Slip-proof pads are adhered at the external base of the bottom plate of the main box. After counting the substances, the main box can be covered with the main lid, and the medical container is sealed up for preservation or disposal.  
       [0008] The side walls of the main box, the partition walls and the flap lids are made of transparent plastic resin, processed with injection molding. The root part of the flap lids which bends inwards are formed thinly, with springy resilient feature applied, and the number parts on top of the lids are embossed by molding or shaving. After the molding and processing, the right and left sides and the front side of the flap lids are cut off with Thompson razor blade, and thus the open-and-close feature is provided. The main box is completed after applying a separately molded bottom plate onto the other parts.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0009] Hereafter, a description of the preferred embodiment of this invention is made in reference to drawings. FIG. 1 is a drawing of an embodiment of this invention according to claim 1 and 2. This invention is composed of the main box  1  and the main lid  2 , the material of the parts other than the bottom plate of the main box  1  and the main lid  2  is polypropylene, and transparent resin such as ABS is uniform-molded with injection molding method. The inside of the square box shape main box  1  is divided lengthwise and breadthwise with partition wall  3 . The top part of each divided stock space has an opening and closing flap lid  4 , the flap lid  4  bends inwards when a substance is pushed on top of the lid, and when the substance drops into the stock space, the lid returns to its original position with its own resilient force, and then the flap lid  4  closes. Although the whole part of flap lid  4  can be made thin, only the root part that bends when opening and closing is molded thinly, to make the movement of the flap lid  4  to be soft and smooth. The flap lid  4  has numbers on the top for visual confirmation, wherein the number is uniformly molded as embossed letter on the inside portion of the flap lid  4 . The numbers are useful when counting the quantity of used gauze pieces, and for when distinguishing stones or organ pieces. The flap part is made by cutting the right and the left sides and the front side of the flap with Thompson razor blade after the whole box is molded, thus enabling the open-and-close feature. The bottom plate is made of white resin to facilitate confirmation of substances even when stained with blood. All the parts of the box except for the bottom plate are made of transparent resin, to enable visual confirmation of the quantity, shape and color of substances at one glance even after the main lid  2  is closed and sealed up. The risk for the once stocked substance to drop out when the flap lids  4  are closed is very small, but by covering the box with main lid  2  the sealing feature increases and the operators&#39; safely is as assured even more. Slip-proof pads  5  are adhered on the outside of the bottom plate of the main box  1 . If adhesive polyethylene foam which are widely used in mouse pads and such is used for the material for the adhesive pad  5 , the slip-proof effect can be certainly realized, and would prevent the trouble of excess adhesiveness and difficult-to-peel situation as found with dual-side tapes. The whole container is made as a sterilized disposable container.  
       [0010] As explained above, this invention enables easy-to-operate storing of substances by using open-and-close flap lids on each stock space, avoids risks of loss and infection due to the sealing feature of each stock space, and increases the safety when preserving or disposing the substances by placing a lid to cover the container. The individual flap lid style can store substances of different shapes and forms, and enables easy seal up storing of the substances. The numbers which are processed with uniform molding method, are useful when counting used needles and gauze pieces, and when distinguishing removed stones and organ pieces. Also, by having all the parts except for the bottom plate to be made of transparent resin, the shape, number and color of the substances can be visually confirmed at one glance from any angle, enabling reconfirmation from the outside after the container is sealed up. The uniform molding method enables the overall cost of the container to decrease, providing an affordable medical container for storage and disposal. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0011]FIG. 1 is an external drawing of a medical container for storage and disposal.