Cutting device for skin for obtaining small blood samples in almost pain-free manner
AssigneeRoche Diagnostics GmbH
InventorsDirk Böcker, Heinrich Fruhstorfer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Cutting device for skin for 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 invention is the reduced pain during pricking.
Claims12
A device for obtaining small blood samples from humans or animals in an almost pain-free manner, the device comprising
- a blade with a pointed cutting edge;
- and
- an oscillator in operable relationship to the blade to make the blade oscillate essentially perpendicularly to a tissue surface at a frequency between 10 Hz and 10 kHz.
A method of cutting skin for obtaining small blood samples in an almost pain-free manner, the method comprising the following steps:
- oscillating a blade with a pointed tip essentially perpendicular to a skin surface at an oscillating frequency of more than 10 Hz;
- moving the oscillating blade toward the skin to be cut open;
- lowering the oscillating blade into the skin;
- and retracting the blade from the skin.
A device for almost painlessly cutting human or animal skin to obtain a blood sample, the device comprising:
- a blade having a cutting edge less than 10 mm in width;
- oscillation means for oscillating the blade at a frequency above 10 Hz,
- movement means for moving the blade into and out of the skin at a speed less than 2 km/hr;
- and
- depth setting means for limiting a depth to which the movement means move the blade into the tissue to a depth of under 2500 μm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.