Hypodermic needle protector

Abstract

A safety hypodermic needle and shielding cap assembly attachable to a standard syringe adapted to prevent the needle after it has been injected in a patient and then withdrawn, from accidental sticking the operator. The syringe includes a fluid chamber provided at its front end with a projecting nozzle surrounded by a cylindrical socket. The assembly includes a hollow hub receivable in the syringe socket and a needle mounted on the hub and extending along its longitudinal axis whereby the nozzle projects into the hub to deliver fluid to the needle. Mounted adjacent one side of the hub is a short track on which is slidable a flexible push rod on whose upper end is laterally attached a shielding cap having a center bore in alignment with the needle. In the operating mode of the assembly, the push rod is retracted and the cap is then telescoped on the hub to expose the needle for injection into a patient. In the shielding mode of the assembly, in effect after the needle is withdrawn from a patient, the push rod is extended by the operator to raise the cap bore above the tip of the needle whereby the cap then shields the tip. Should pressure be applied accidentally to the shielding cap seeking to force it toward the needle, the cap which is cantilevered from the track by the flexible rod will then swing to an offset position in which the bore is out of line with the needle tip.