Many medical procedures require injecting a fluid into a patient using a syringe. In certain medical procedures, multiple syringes may be needed to administer the fluid into the patient. For example, in treating varicose vein using “sclerotherapy”, multiple injections of a sclerosing solution are administrated to the patient. In this procedure, 40-60 syringes may be utilized to inject the solution during a treatment session. Before the syringes can be used to inject the solution, the syringes must initially be filled. Once all of the syringes are filled, the syringes can be utilized to deliver the solution to the patient.
One method of obtaining a filled syringe is to purchase syringes that have been pre-loaded with the desired fluid. However, this method has several disadvantages. First, pre-loaded syringes having the desired fluid may not be readily available. Second, if the syringe is available, it may not have the desired amount of fluid and may be relatively expensive. For these and other reasons, pre-loaded syringes may not be desirable.
An alterative method of filing syringes involves manually filling the syringes. This method involves manually inserting the needle of each syringe, one at a time, into a sealed vial containing the fluid. Once the needle is inserted into the container, the syringe plunger is withdrawn until the syringe barrel is filled with the desired amount of fluid. The operation is repeated for each syringe until the number of desired syringes are filled. However, manually filling multiple syringes can be time consuming and labor intensive. Further, the needle of the syringe may be damaged when the needle is inserted into the sealed container, requiring the needle to be replaced.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds