for lateral infusion or aspiration of medicaments and other materials as defined herein the u201c needle assembly 10 u201d can comprise infusion needle 11 alone or infusion needle 11 in combination with other components the u201c infusion needle 11 u201d as defined herein comprises one or more needle cannulae having a preformed bend 16 the infusion needle 11 of fig1 is comprised of a superelastic alloy needle cannula 13 preferably the alloy sold under the trademark nitinol that is soldered or otherwise affixed to a well known needle hub 14 using one of a selected number of well known techniques including that of hall described in u s pat no 5 354 623 whose disclosure is expressly incorporated herein by reference and a flange 23 which has a first tapered or pointed end 24 whose shape is readily distinguishable from the second squared end 42 first end 24 corresponds to the direction of preformed bend 16 in needle cannula 13 of infusion needle 11 bend 16 is formed in the nitinol needle cannula 13 by either the well known process of deforming the cannula under extreme heat for a prescribed period of time which produces a cannula entirely in the austenitic state or by cold working the cannula which involves applying a large amount of mechanical stress to deflect the 15 cannula well beyond the desired amount of permanent bend cold working permanently locks a crystalline structure in the bending.