is hypospray technology possible in the future? from what i understand, hyposprays were developed to eliminate the use of needles, which would eliminate the pain of getting one. but does the medicine just vaporize into your body? i would think this would be an issue to look at in the future for doctors.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
There have been hypospray-type injection devices in medical use since, oh, the sixties. These are mainly useful in cases where one needs to rapidly inject the same substance into multiple patients (say, a company of soldiers getting inoculated - no need to change needles, or redraw substance into a small syringe each time, when you can just sort of pressure-hose it into the patients). Another condition usually is that the substance must be allowed to go into muscle tissue, not directly into blood circulation.
There are a couple of hurdles before we can have Trek-style hyposprays. A jet that would be localized enough to hit blood vessels and not the surrounding tissue is a difficult goal - you can use a sharp jet on a vein close to skin, but it's likely to leave a nasty hole. Also, you cannot adjust the depth of injection very easily. And you cannot draw blood.
Trek hyposprays could solve many of the problems by using "virtual needles" - hollow tubes made out of forcefields. Today's or tomorrow's tech could do the same with needles made out of an inert annular jet of saline solution, within which the substance will flow (either in or out). Both alternatives will still leave holes, but at least they will be more sterile than needles.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Woodside Kid (Member # 699) on :
I received a good amount of my shots that way in AF basic training back in '83. One drawback that a number of my fellow airmen discovered is that you had to keep your arm still during the injection. If you flinched and moved, the high pressure liquid gave you a nice little cut on your arm. I don't know if they've changed the process since then, but Timo is right; it did make the procedure a good deal faster.
Posted by Proteus (Member # 212) on :
I thought hyposprays used micro-transport technology to simply deliver the medicine into the vien without actual penitration.
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
quote:Originally posted by Proteus: I thought hyposprays used micro-transport technology to simply deliver the medicine into the vien without actual penitration.