Perforating connector for medical fluid containers

Inventors

NANDIPATI, Rajesh • Sakhare, Vandana

Assignees

Vantive Health GmbH • Baxter Innovations & Business Solutions Private Ltd • Vantive US Healthcare LLC

Abstract

A perforating connector assembly including a valve; and a perforating connector comprising a perforator accepted by the valve, the perforator including a spiked end and a lever, the lever including a projection, a shell extending around the perforator and the valve, the shell including a pre-activation opening and a post-activation opening, a spring held compressed during pre-activation by a tab of the lever being located within the pre-activation opening, and an actuator slidingly engaged to the shell, the actuator including a projection, the actuator translatable by a user so that the projection becomes aligned with the tab located within the opening, wherein the user is able to push the projection into the pre-activation opening to disengage the tab from the opening, and wherein the spring is able to decompress and translate the perforator so that the medical fluid container is accessed and the tab becomes located within the post-activation opening.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a spring-activated perforating connector assembly for sealing to a medical fluid container and for piercing the container by a spiked end of a perforator. The connector includes a valve sealing to the medical fluid container, and a perforating connector comprises a perforator sealingly accepted by the valve. The perforator includes a spiked end and a lever with a tab, and the assembly includes a shell extending around the perforator.

A compression spring is held compressed during pre-activation by the tab of the lever located within a pre-activation opening of the shell. The shell includes a pre-activation opening and a post-activation opening, and an actuator slidingly engaged to the shell includes a projection. The actuator is translated by a user so that the projection becomes aligned with the tab located within the pre-activation opening, after which the user pushes the projection into the pre-activation opening to disengage the tab from the pre-activation opening.

After the tab is disengaged, the spring decompresses and translates the perforator so that the medical fluid container is pierced open by the spiked end, and the tab becomes located within the post-activation opening. The lever can be configured to snap or become biased to limit further travel by locating into the post-activation opening, and the actuator can be constrained to translate relative to the shell so that the projection performs the tab-disengagement alignment and disengagement. The described structure further supports sealing concepts, including a valve and an optional o-ring, and a flow path through a perforator lumen after piercing.

Claims Coverage

The document includes three independent claims covering a valve-equipped spring-biased perforating connector assembly with a shell and user-translated actuator, a perforating connector without the valve, and a method for accessing a medical fluid using the described mechanical arrangement. Across the independent claims, the coverage centers on a spiked perforator with a lever tab, a shell with pre-activation and post-activation openings, a spring held compressed by the tab, and an actuator projection that is translated by a user to disengage the tab and trigger perforator translation.

Overall, the claims define a mechanically coordinated system in which a spring-biased perforator is retained in a pre-activation state by a lever tab within a shell opening, and a user-translated actuator projection disengages the tab so that the spring decompresses to translate the perforator to pierce a medical fluid container and move the tab into a post-activation opening. The valve-based assembly further specifies sealing between a valve and the medical fluid container with a perforator sealingly accepted by the valve.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications