The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 28, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2002
Gregory Alan Steube, St. Charles, MO (US);
Alan Ranford, Creve Couer, MO (US);
Ronald Lloyd, Deland, FL (US);
Sherwood Services AG, Schaffhausen, CH;
Abstract
A thoracentesis device having a hypersensitive dual spring indication mechanism for visually alerting the user of any contact to internal body organs by the blunt tip distal end of the device once the it as been inserted inside a patient's body. The thoracentesis device includes a handle and an outer needle fixedly attached thereto having a sharp distal end for penetrating a chest cavity wall and a conduit that is in communication with a cavity defined inside the handle. A dual spring-loaded inner needle is slidably disposed inside the conduit of the outer needle with the inner needle being operably is associated with a large spring that imparts a sufficient distal spring force to fully extend the blunt tip distal end of the inner needle beyond the sharp distal end of the outer needle and a small spring for imparting a smaller spring force thereto.