US3548825A - Combination mixing and injecting medical syringe - Google Patents

Description

United States Patent [72] inventor JosephDenmanShaw 3,326,215 6/1967 Sarnotfetal. 128/272X 508ChurchSt.,Brownsville,Pa. 15417 3,336,924 8/1967 Sarnoffetal. 128/218X(M) [2 1 pr 3 1 4 fs N 662340 A 22 1967 FOREIGN PATENTS lVISlOllO er. 0. ug. Pawn No.3489147whichisaconfinua 32,420 10/1923 Denmark 128/218(M) on ofser No 384148 Jul 21 1964 608,043 4/1926 France 128/218 abandon; y 282,622 3/1915 Germany 128/218(M) 22 Filed ing-5' OTHER REFERENCES [45] Patented Dec. 22, 1970 Only drawing relied upon.

COMBINATION MIXING AND INJECTING Primary Examiner-Samuel Koren Assistant Examiner-James H. Czerwonky Attorney-Baldwin, Egan, Walling & Fetzer ABSTRACT: A combined mixing and injecting syringe has an outer barrel to contain a first ingredient and provided with an injection outlet, has an inner barrel slidable in a sealed manner longitudinally of the outer barrel for containing a second ingredient, and has a plunger slidable in a sealed manner longitudinally of the inner barrel. The inner barrel has a discharge opening of small diameter communicating with the hollow of the outer barrel and normally closed by a small plug. A pin is provided in the closed end of the outer barrel in position to push the small plug mechanically out of blocking position in the inner barrel discharge opening upon relative movement of the two barrels. The pin is laterally spaced from the injection outlet and is fixed within the closed end, extending inwardly in alignment with the discharge opening.

i i l n 5 COMBINATION MIXING AND INJECTING MEDICAL SYRINGE This application is a division of application Ser. No. 662,340,- filed Aug. 22, 1967, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,147, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 384,148, filed July 21, 1964, now abandoned.

This invention relates to a combined mixing and injecting syringe useful among other things in medical practice for the injection of a two-ingredient mixture.

One of the objects of the present invention is the provision of a syringe whereby one ingredient, such as a powder or liquid, may be dissolved in asuitable diluent second ingredient and then injected into a patient by the use of this novel syr- Inge.

Other objects of this invention include the arrangement of the parts for quick assembly and disassembly for loading or cleaning, means for quickly measuring the amounts of the mixed ingredients, and other objects and advantages as will be apparent in the accompanying drawings and description.

In the drawings, I

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of one embodiment of my invention;

FIG. 2 is a central sectional view of the device of FIG. 1;

FlG.-3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. I;

7 FIG. 4 is a fragmental sectional view similar to the upper portion of FIG. 2 and showing a modified construction for breaking a seal permitting mixing of ingredients;

FIG. 5 is a central sectional view through another modification of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a central sectional view through another modifica tion of this invention related to FIG. 5; while FIG. 7 is an elevational view of certain of the parts of FIG. 6 in the process of assembly.

Prior to this invention, to the best of my knowledge and belief, there has been an unmet need for a mixing syringe wherein two or more ingredients could be easily placed in separate chambers of the syringe with no mixing occurring until just before the injection of the combined ingredients into a patient and constructed with easily manipulated parts whereby a breachable passageway communicating with the chambers containing the separate ingredients is adapted to be easily and quickly opened followed by mixing of the ingredients in a mixing chamber and the immediate propulsion of the contents out of the syringe.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, an outer liquid-retaining barrel is open at the lower end as viewed in the drawings and closed at the upper end save for a discharge outlet 26. Those skilled in this art will understand that to the outlet 26 may be easily connected or disconnected a rectal tip 27 or a standard hypodermic needle as shown in some of the views of the drawings. An inner liquid-retaining barrel 28 is adapted to move axially in and out of the open end of the barrel 25. This inner barrel has a discharge opening 29 of small diameter adapted to communicate with the discharge end of the barrel 25. I have called this a breachable passageway inasmuch as it is initially closed by means of a small plug 30 which in this case might be vaseline, silicone rubber or a number of other suitable materials. The upper end of barrel 28 as viewed in the drawings carries a gasket 31 of a suitable resilient material such as rubber or plastic adapted to sealingly engage the inner walls of the outer barrel 25. The parts of the gasket and the inner barrel 28 are rigidly connected together as shown in the drawings. The other end of barrel 28 is open to receive a reciprocatable plunger 32 which sealingly engages the interior walls of the barrel 28. In this form of the invention, glass parts are fitted with such close tolerances that there is to all intents and purposes a seal between the plunger 32 and the barrel 28. In other forms of the invention an annular gasket seal is provided for the same purpose.

The inner and outer barrels and the plunger described in various embodiments of this invention are preferably made of glass or reasonably transparent plastic for reasons of economy, ease of sterilization, and the desirability of looking through the equipment to note the position of the ingredients. Such translucent or transparent barrels may be provided with measuring indicia if desired and as shown in FIG. 1. While these indicia have not been shown in all of the embodiments in the drawings, it will be understood that this feature of the invention may be applied to any of the embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 2, in the use of this embodiment, a measured amount of a first ingredient such as a powder 33 is placed in the outer barrel 25 before inserting the inner barrel 28 with its attached gasket 31. A second ingredient 34 is easily loaded into the inner barrel 28. This may be done by sucking the ingredient 34 through the passageway 29 before the parts are assembled in the outer barrel, after which the small plug 30 is applied to the passageway 29. Otherwise, the plunger 32 may be removed from the barrel 28 and the ingredient 34 inserted under vacuum, after which the plunger 32 is placed in the proper position. With the parts as shown in FIG. 2, the plunger 32 is driven into the barrel 28 causing sufficient pressure on the ingredient 34 to eject the plug 30 and propel the contents of barrel 28 into the mixing chamber at the upper end of barrel 25. Ingredients 33 and 34 are then mixed by shaking the device a few times, after which the barrel 28 is driven into the barrel 25 to discharge the contents through the discharge outlet 26. Those skilled in the art will understand that if there is any air in the mixing chamber, the syringe will normally be held with the discharge end upwardly as shown in the drawings and the gasket 31 moved upwardly until all of the air is discharged before injecting the mixed contents into a patient. I

It can be seen that after the hypodermic needle is inserted into a patient, the plunger 32 can be pulled back in order to attempt aspiration to help determine the position of the needle. Thereby the possibility of an intravascular injection is minimized when an intramuscular or subcutaneous injection is desired. g

In the modification of FIG. 4, all of the parts are the same as described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2 except that a pin 35 is rigidly fastened to the closed end of the barrel 25 and extending axially inwardly in such a position that when the barrel 28 and the gasket 31 are advanced upwardly as viewed in the drawings, the pin 35 will force the small plug 30 backward into the inner barrel 28 instead of relying upon the pressure of the ingredients 34 as described in connection with FIG. 2.

Up to this point, the embodiments described herein use reciprocatable plungers for propelling the second ingredient into the mixing chamber and for propelling the mixture to injectthe patient. I shall now describe some embodiments utilizing gas or air under pressure as the propelling means.

In FIG. 5, I have shown a first ingredient chamber 101 which is preferably of glass and is closed except for an inlet for gas or air under pressure at 102 closed by a check valve 103. This capsule has a neck 104 which has a threaded connection 105 with a collar 106 which is integral with a second capsule 107 having an outlet neck 108 which has a threaded connec tion 109 with a closure cap 110 which supports at its discharge end a hypodermic needle 111 or the like. With the parts assembled as shown in FIG. 5, the outlet 101a of the capsule 101 i is aligned with the inlet 107a of the capsule 107. A frangible seal 112 is provided between the passageways 101a and 1070 initially. In like manner, the outlet 1071; of capsule 107 is aligned with passageway a in the closing cap but these are separated by a frangible seal 113. A first ingredient 114 of measured amount is placed in capsule 101 and a charge of gas or air under pressure is applied in chamber 115. A measured amount of a second ingredient 116 is placed in capsule 107. In use of this device, the seal 112 is first broken by utilizing threaded connection 105 to turn the neck 104 in the collar 106 causing a pressure to break the seal 112. The charge in chamber will then drive the ingredient 114 through 1010 and 1070 into capsule 107 to mix with ingredient 116. At this time the charge in chamber 117 is derived from the charge originally in chamber 115. The needle 111 is then injected into the patient. This lower portion of closure cap 110 is then utilizing thethreaded connection 109 in the same manner as the threaded connection105 was previously used. A filter is provided at 1 18 to prevent any foreign material,.such as from the seals 112 or 113, from reaching the hypodermic needle 11.

A modification of the structure shown in FIG. is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. A first capsule 119 has a filling connection 120 at itsupper end-and a discharge port 121 at its lower end connected to the capsule by an integral collar 122. Initially, the capsule 119 is provided with the desired amount of one ingredient 123 and then a charge 'of compressed gas or air is provided inthe upper portion of the capsule at 124 and the filling neck is closed by a fused bead 125 of glass or plastic depending upon what the capsule is made of. The discharge neck 121 is closedby a similarbead 126 prior to the filling operation. A second or lower capsule is provided having a discharge neck 128 closed by a fusedbead 129. The upper end of this capsule has collar 130 which asoriginally formed is in the position shown in FIG; 7.'Before any ingredient is placed in this embodiment, the two capsules are secured together by fusing the neck 121 to the collarl30 at the point A as indicated in FIG. 7. The collar 130 is then heated and inverted as shownat 130 in FIG. 6 so as to place the seal 126 inside the collar 130.

Where the two capsules are joined together a flexible collar 132 of plastic or rubber is placed as shown in FIG. 6. This collar 132 may be made in place by means of a plastic which shrinks upon drying or by wrapping layers of flexible material in a continuous tube bound together by a suitable coating.

A collar 133 similar to that at 132 is provided to attach the discharge neck 128 of capsule 127 with the base end 134a of a hypodermic needle 134. Inside of the flexible collar 133 there is placed a filter 135 to protect the patient from any particles which might be released'through the capsules during an injection.

In operation of the device of FIG. 6, the seal 126 is first broken by bending the flexible collar 132 permitting the ingredient .123 to move through outlet neck 121 into capsule 127 propelled by the fluid pressure charge 124. The total charge in capsule 127 then might arise as high as the line B and the contents may be shaken to mix them. For propelling the mixed contents out of capsule 127 into the patient, the charge 124 may be of sufficiently high pressure that when the i ingredients are all in the capsule 127, the pressure fluid charge inchamber 136 will be of the right value for injecting the patient. Otherwise, a second gaseous charge may be placed in chamber .136 at the time that capsule 127 is first filled. The

hypodermic needle 134 is inserted in the proper position in -of the needle in the patient. The flexible collar 133 is suffi- .cien tly transparent to examine the presence or absence of aspirate from the patient. If conditions are suitable, the flexible collar is thenmanipulated to break the seal and the mixed ingredients are injected into the patient.

let and asecond measured ingredient chamber having a closed but breachable passageway communicating with the mixing chamber inlet. Means is provided for opening the breachable passageway and for propelling the contents of the ingredient chamber into the mixing chamber with the ingredient already placed thereafter which the mixing chamber may be shaken to thoroughly mix the contents. Means is provided then for propelling the contents of the. mixing chamber through the outletto inject a patient, This provides a quick and easy manner'of mixing-two ingredients in place in a syringe just before injecting a patient and is an improvement over methods previously known.

lclaim:

l. A combined mixing andinjecting syringe comprising an outer firstin redient-retaining barrel open at one end and having a disc arge outlet at its other, closed end, an inner second-ingredient-retaining barrel open at one end and having at its other end a gasket having sealing engagement with the interior surface of said outer barrel and being movable axially in said outer barrel, there being a discharge opening of small diameter through said gasket communicating between the interior of said inner barrel and the interior of said outer barrel at its end toward said discharge outlet, a small plug having the dimensions of said discharge opening initially closing said discharge opening, a pin laterally spaced from said discharge outlet and fixed within said closed end of said outer barrel extending inwardly in alignment with said discharge opening through said gasket and in position and of a length to push said small'plug mechanically backward in said discharge opening into said inner barrel when said inner barrel is moved toward said closed end of said outer barrel, a plunger adapted to sealingly engage the interior surface of said inner barrel and move axially endwise of .said inner barrel through the open end thereof, whereby a first ingredient of a mixture including a dispensable solid may be placed in said outer barrel and held thereby said inner barrel, and a liquid second ingredient of said mixture may be placed in said inner barrel and held there by said plunger, after which by manipulation of said inner barrelsaid small plug may be pushed backward through said discharge opening into said inner barrel and said second ingredient may then be propelled, by manipulation of said plunger, through said discharge opening into said first ingredient in said outer barrel, said two ingredients may be mixed there, and then said mixture may be propelled by said inner barrel through said discharge outlet to inject a patient.

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