Needle guard for syringe

Abstract

An elongate cylindrical body portion and a spoon-shaped shield member are injection molded as a single unitary piece of transparent polypropylene. The cylindrical body portion has a longitudinally extending slot so that it can be readily snapped around the barrel of a syringe. The spoon-shaped member extends from the forward end of the body portion. This member can deflect transversely from an un-deflected non-use configuration to a slightly deflected in-use configuration to permit the needle to extend therebeyond when the guard is installed with the body portion in a retracted position relative to the barrel of the syringe. When the body portion of the guard is manually slid to an extended position relative to the syringe barrel, the spoon-shaped member returns to its un-deflected configuration and the tip of the needle is engaged by a plurality of ribs formed on an inner wall of the spoon-shaped member. The tip of the needle is thus concealed and accidental puncture thereby is avoided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.