In recent years attention in the medical field has been directed to the prevention of the transmission of infectious diseases through normal contact with patients. Only recently has the medical profession become acutely concerned with transmission of infectious diseases from the patient to the health care personnel, and vice versa, during routine treatment. In particular, the medical profession is now actively considering new techniques and devices to prevent the accidental transmission of the HIV virus (AIDS), hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases between the health care personnel and patients.
In several instances, doctors and nurses have contracted hepatitis or the AIDS virus by accidentally puncturing a finger, hand or other body part with a hypodermic needle which has been in contact with a patient infected with hepatitis or the AIDS virus. One of the more common manners in which health care personnel are at risk and have become infected is during injection with a hypodermic needle when the needle slips or breaks and is accidentally plunged into the hand of the person administering the care. Accidents have occurred during injection directly into the patient and also during injection into the coupling of an IV tube.
It is common practice to administer drugs to a patient by inserting a syringe with a needle into a y-shaped coupling in the IV supply tube. This operation typically requires forcing the hypodermic needle with one hand through a puncturable septum in the coupling while the coupling is held with the other hand. The coupling is usually quite small and difficult to handle, thereby creating a high risk of injuring the operator while attempting to insert the needle and when replacing the safety cap on a used needle.
Whether or not there is a serious risk of transmitting a disease, it is desirable to find ways to prevent injury to medical personnel during the always risky procedures concerning the handling and use of exposed needles whether the needle is being used to add medications to an IV, extract a medication from a bottle, administer intramuscular injections, or perform any one of several other needle-related operations.