Patent ID: 8221332

Claim:
A lancing device, comprising: a plurality of lancets for lancing skin; a multi-lancet carrier that carries the lancets; a housing that receives the multi-lancet carrier therein; an advancing mechanism adapted to advance in a forward direction the lancets of the multi-lancet carrier sequentially into an active position; a drive mechanism adapted to propel an active-positioned one of the lancets along a lancing stroke path to an extended position to penetrate the skin; an anti-reverse mechanism housed within the multi-lancet carrier and adapted to permit advancement of the lancets into the active position and to prevent reverse movement of the lancets in a reverse direction opposite from the forward direction, wherein the anti-reverse mechanism includes a series of blocking surfaces and a pawl that sequentially engages the blocking surfaces as the multi-lancet carrier is advanced to prevent reverse direction movement of the multi-lancet carrier; and an emergency reuse mechanism housed within the multi-lancet carrier and adapted to permit a reusable one of the lancets to be reused, wherein the emergency reuse mechanism includes a ramped surface and a reversement element, the ramped surface is positioned where one of the blocking surfaces of the anti-reverse mechanism would otherwise be and corresponds to the reusable lancet, and when a manual reverse-direction force is applied to the reversement element the pawl slides up the ramped surface and the multi-lancet carrier moves in the reverse direction.