Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
5~
The present invention relates to new
disposable acupuncture needles.
Acupuncture i5 a very acient thera-
peutic technique which is proving potentially interesting
for the future, but it raises a number of problems
where the needles to use are concerned. The main problems
are :
- the necessity to use sterile needles
which are not likely to pass on certain virus diseases.
Indeed, if the needles are not thorougly sterilized
between every use there is a risk of virus diseases being
transmitted from one patient to the other. And as we
know from the prior art, sterilization of the currently
used acupuncture needles is very difficult and most
f the time incomplete in a doctor s surgery;
- the necessity to use needles whose
point is in a perfect stateO This necessity is due to the
fact that with acupuncture, the point of the needle
must reach with precision certain parts situated in the
immediate vicinity of the skin surface. As it happens,
each time a needle is used, its point suffers a certain
amount of deterioration, this resulting in the action
of the needle becoming painful and in some cases dangerous
for the punctured tissues;
- the necessity to have needles which
are easy to handle and also light enough so that~ when
in place, their point does not move when the practitioner
lets go of the needleO
It happens that the needles currently
found on the market do no-t help to solve these different
problems, particularly because the known needles are
provided at their non-pointed end, for handling purposes,
wi-th a cylinder- or ball-shaped endpiece which, besides
complicating the indus-trial production of the needles,
leads to heav~J and unbalanced needles. Moreover~ all
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the currently known needles are intended to be ~Ised a
grea-t mally times~ hence the added difficulties arising
from tlle gradual de-terioration of the points and from
the neecl f`or excessive s-terilization be-tween uses~
It is the object of -the present
invention to overcome -the aforesaid problems by
deciding first and foremost tha-t -the ac-t of acupuncture
can only be absolutely safe if disposabl.e needles are
used.
Bu-t to put this idea into practice -
and to solve the other problems mentioned hereinabove -
implies the developmen-t of a disposable needle which
is easy to produce industrially and consequently of
reasonable costO
The present invention therefore relates
to a disposable~ sterile-packed acup~mctllre needle,
showing -the following characteristics :
a) - its length is between about 30 and
and 80 mm, ancl preferably abou-t 50mm;
- the diameter of its cylindrical
part is between 0.35 and 0.50 mrn,
and preferably about 0.45 mm,
- it is made from strong s-tainless
steelj
b) - it has one pointed end;
- and its cylindrical part is
provided, over part of its length,
with at least one flat portion
which is obtained by deformation
of the cylindrical part, said
deformation resulting in a widening
of said part, going from 1.1 D
to 1.9 D, D being the width of
the said cylindrical par-t where
the said "flat portion" is formed.
In certain special cases7 it is possible for the
cylindrical part of the needle, which part comprises at
least one "flat portion", to show a certain extra thick-
ness with respect to the other cylindrical part of the
needle. This extra thic~ness should however be such
that the width D of said cylindrical part presenting an
extra thicknesst remains less than about 1 mm.
Clearly, it is for industrial supplies require-
ments and also to avoid that certain human tissues are
injured when manipulating the needle that the needle
according to the invention is produced from a cylin-
drical metal wire of circular cross-section. In this
case of course, the width D will be the diameter of the
wire.
In another aspect this invention relates to a
method for the industrial production of an acupuncture
needle of the type hereinbefore set forth~ wherein the
method invol~es the following steps: cutting a stainless
steel wire; sharpening one end of the needle into a point;
and producing the flat portion by stamping.
The invention will be more readily understood on
reading the following description with reference to the
accompanying drawings~ in which:
- Figure 1 is an enlarged view of the needle; and
- Figure 2 is an enlarged cross-sectionai view of
the needle, taken along line II-II.
Figure 1 shows:
- in 1~ the very sharp point of the needIe,
- in 2 the cylindrical part forming the main body of the
needle; advantageously, the diameter of said cylindrical
part is 0.45 mm,
- in 3, the flat portion of the needle, followed/ in 47 by
another cylindrical part~ the diameter of which can be
the same as that of cylindrical part 2.
. 35 Figure 2 shows:
a`'~ ~ a cross-section (hachured part) of the flat portion 5
of the needle, the shape of this flat portion being
substantially rectangular, and the length of said
rectangular part7 which is for example obtained by simple
7S9
deforma-tion of the cylinder, being slightly grea-ter
-thall the initial diameter of the cylinder; for
example, the length of part 3 of the needle (measured
along -the a~is) only needs to be between 1 and 3 mm,
- in 6, the finer cylindrical part ~ of -the needle.
The weigllt of the needle according to
the invention is less than about 1.5 decigramm~ and
preferably less than 1 decigramme.
It has been specified that the cylindric-
al par-t of the needle comprises "at least one flat portion";
said portion (or portions) is quite obviously designed to help the
practitioner handle the needle.Experience has shown
that handling is made easier if the needle is provided
with 3 to 6, and preferably 5, such flat portion~ placed
one next to -the other. The leng-th of each flat portion
will be around 1.4 to 2 mm (measured in the direction
o~ the axis of the initial cylinder), and the various
flat portions will be separated by a cylindrical part
between 1.5 and 3 mm in length. It will be noted that
the planes of each flat portion can be situated
in the same plane or in different planes; preferably,
and thereagain to make the needles easier to handle,
these planes will be different. The width of each flat
portion is between 1.1 D and 1.9 D approximately, D being
the diameter of the cylidrical part~ with the reservation
that, in any case, D is less than about 1 mmO
The method for preparing the acupuncture
needles according to the invention consists in :
- cutting the steel wire (sprinsystainless steel) to the
desired length;
- sharpening the needles, obviously, the pointed part of
the needle will need to be as sharp as possible
in relation to the material used at the start;
- deforming the cylindrical part of the needle to obtain
the flat portion or portions, this is done by stamping;
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it has been fo~d in every case that said flat portion
shoulA not be si-tua-ted at the end of -the needle, but at
a certain distance (a-t leas-t 0.4 mm) from that end;
when more than two flat por-tions (five for example)
are required, the stamping will be carried out in at
least two successive operations; for example, two
adjacent flat portions will be stamped in a first
operation and the three others in a second operation~
The needles prodllced as indicated
hereinabove are thereafter packed for delivery in steri.le
packagesO The needles can be packed individually or in
sets (of 5 or ~ ~erably 10 needles). ~very precaution
will need to be taken during packing to protect the
pointed ends of the needles. For example a certain
number of needles can be stuck in an open-pore plastic
foam, or in a piece of cotton cloth, and their point
can be protected by turning part of the cloth over
the points. When the needles have been placed in the
cotton or in -the foam, they are placed inside a card-
board or a sheet of plas-tic which can already be printed
with the necessary indications; the resulting bags
or packets are placed under blister and sterilized
by known means (ethylene oxide or irrad.iation ~or
example). The advantage of all these packing operations
is that they are quite industrializable, and -that the
resulting finished product is commercializable at an
advantageous cost price 7
It is also known that those who practise
acupuncture often seek also the possibility of exciting the
centers to l~hich the needles are direc-ted, this by sub-
jecting -the needle -to a very slight potential difference.
Although this is possible with the needle described
hereinabove, it has been found that it is often ad~anta-
geous to coat the said needles with a very conducting
and resistan-t metal or alloy~
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S-uitable metals or alloys aIegold,
silver, platinum1 copper and possibly niclcel, or an
alloy nade from tllese metals.
These me-tals and/or their alloys can be
coated on the needles by -the conventional methods;
the object being to ob-tain a simple superf`icial
coa-ting of` the needle (-thickness of -the coating
preferably between 0.1 and 2 microns), -the metals
can be deposi-ted by electrolysis of a conventional
suitable solution.
The needles coated as indicated herein-
above have many advAntages, amongs-t which :
- improved visibility of the need:Le
when said needle is stuck in the
patient's skin;
- improved electrical and electrostatic
conductibility of -the needle;
- use of a surface of generally precious
metal considered as less liable to
become oxidi~ed and therefore cleaner
and easier to keep sterile;
- positive psychological effects on the
patient.
The following example is given non-
restrictively to illustrate the invention :
A 50 mm long stainless steel needle is
produced from a cylindrical rod of 0.~5 mm diameter.
A very fine point is made at one of the end of said needle
and, close to the other end of the needle, three flat
portions are produced by crushing, the length of each
flat portion (measured along -the axis of the needle)
being between 1 and 3 mm and preferably about 1~6 mm.
The width of each flat portion is about 0~75 mrn and the
distance between each flat portion is about 1.6 mm. The
resul-ting acupunc-ture needle is easy to handle for the
practi-tioner.
~ Yle resul-ting needle is clipped into an
electrolysis tanlc con-taining a soluble gold sal-t.
Af-ter about 2 minu-tes of` elec-trolysis, a layer of about
0.~ micron tl~ickness is deposited over the entire needle.
The needle obtained according to the
invention has been f`ound to be very safe , to have a
hiSi~ conduc-tibility~ and good stability once
positioned correctly, due to i-ts light weight.
