Injections without needles? Far out.
James Weaver of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues developed the novel procedure, which is known as microscission. It uses minuscule inert crystals of aluminum oxide to remove the rough outer layer of skin and create tiny holes, known as microconduits and measuring less than a quarter of a millimeter in diameter, through which medication can move. A jet of flowing gas then takes the crystals and the loosened skin away. After creating four microconduits on the inner arm of volunteers, the team applied a pad soaked in the anesthetic lidocaine. Within two minutes, the drug had worked and the subjects reported no feeling in the region.
The size and depth of the microconduits is determined by holes punched in a polymer mask laid on top of the skin. The team reports that “the onset of anesthesia takes longer in microconduits deep enough to yield blood than in shallower, nonblood producing microconduits.” But deep microconduits do have some advantages. Patients suffering from diabetes, for example, often have to jab a finger to test their blood sugar; microscission could represent a less painful alternative, the team suggests.
Not quite a “hypospray,” but getting there …
(via GeekPress)
Injections without needles have been around for a long time. Surely you’ve had an injection done with compressed air? I don’t know quite how it worked, but I know it was used a lot in the military because it allowed military doctors to give many injections quickly without having to change needles. I don’t think they can do it with every injection, but with some it apparently works fine. I also recall that it was in some ways worse than a needle injection since the site of the injection itched like crazy for much longer than the pain of a needle lasted. This new technique sounds much better.
>>Dave