Skin cutter for painless extraction of small blood amounts
AssigneeRoche Diagnostics GmbH
InventorsDirk Bocker, Heinrich Fruhstorfer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Cutting device for skin obtaining small blood samples from human or animal tissue in an almost pain-free manner. A blade (13) is made to oscillate by an oscillator (14, 32) and is lowered into the tissue and again retracted at a relatively slow speed. In a first embodiment, the blade oscillates essentially parallel to the cutting edge of the blade and the tissue surface. In a second embodiment, the blade oscillates essentially perpendicular to the tissue surface. An advantage of the device of the reduced pain during pricking.
Claims31
A device for obtaining small blood samples from humans or animals in an almost pain-free manner, the device comprising:
- a blade having a cutting edge with a length of less than 10 mm;
- and
- an oscillator means for making the blade oscillate at a frequency along an axis that is substantially parallel to the cutting edge.
A method of cutting skin tissue for obtaining blood samples of less than 50 .mu.l from humans or animals in an almost pain-free manner, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a blade having a cutting edge of less than 10 mm in length and oscillating the blade at an oscillation frequency in at least one direction which is substantially parallel to the cutting edge;
- moving the oscillating blade perpendicularly toward and into tissue to be cut open;
- and
- thereafter retracting the blade from the tissue.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.