Needle Free Injections With Microjets

IZ Reloaded writes "Do you hate needles? In the near future, the fear of needles would be a thing of a past. Bioengineering students at the University of California, Berkeley have developed the MicroJet. It uses an electronic actuator that could one day propel vaccinations, insulin or other drugs through the skin of the patient - without the device even touching the skin - with far less pain than a hypodermic needle."

I'm a type 1 diabetic

[Anonymous Coward]

And they've had "needle-less" injectors around for a long while, however the current ones are expensive and rather inaccurate at dosing when compared to needles.

However, I must say I really don't care if they come out with a needle-less injector that works better. It's not the shots themselves that bother me, but rather the constant maintenance that people take for granted. I'd still need to do something. Right now I have a pump, and it's better than doing individual injections, but it's always with me. I'm waiting for the day when I no longer have to worry about this disease any longer because I've been cured.

Yes, do you prefer...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hypospray, anyone?

Jetgun

[maotx]

Sounds similar to the jetgun [hcvets.com] the military use to use. Does anyone know the difference?

The first?

[ImTwoSlick]

I have distinct memories of getting shots in basic training, where a needleless gun was used. How is this any different?

And trust me.. It is not exactly pain-free.

Didn't they invent this 40 years ago?

[tinrobot]

I remember getting vaccinated in the 1960's (yes, I'm that old) and they used some sort of air gun that shot the vaccination through the skin.

That thing HURT!

Some time ago now

[n0dalus]

I was reading an article a few years ago about how they are going to try reducing the surface area with nerves with syringes by putting tiny hair-like fibres along it, similar to a mosquito's proboscis (which can't be felt by most people).
I have yet to see them use that idea, and if you ask me that sounded a lot more cost effective then this does.

No needle at all, and it already exists

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

For some drugs, like those that should diffuse into the body slowly over time, transdermal diffusion devices already exist right now. A prime example of those is the nicotine patch, and I hear there are patches for diabetes too.

As for lots of micro-needles vs. one big needle, it might not be all that new: I seem to recall getting some vaccine shot at school when I was a kid, where the nurse used some ring-looking plastic thing she put on her middle finger, with the business end of the device being a small, round "nail-bed" in her palm, and she slammed me on the shoulder with it, which probably accounts for the ugly mark I have there at that spot too :-)

pneumatic injectors are painful

[johnny cashed]

I got vaccinated with an "air gun" back in the day. it hurts, probably as much as a needle. But you can do a whole group of people quickly, 'cause you don't need to change needles.

Re:Jetgun

[charyou-tree]

Sounds similar to the jetgun the military use to use. Does anyone know the difference?

Well, they're promising "far less pain" with this device.

Once upon a time, I had the misfortune to receive a yellow fever vaccination with one of the military's needleless injectors. It felt like some steroid-pumped baseball player had swung a bat at my shoulder. Nearly as bad as the pain was the gathering anticipation of the pain, as I watched the 200-odd people in line ahead of me get their shots.

Re:pneumatic injectors are NOT painful...

[25thCenturyQuaker]

...and neither are most standard injections, when done properly.

I got my German Measles (rubella) vaccination with a pneumatic injector. I think this was in 6th grade, which would have been sometime in 1970-71 for me. I don't really remember it hurting any more or less than a standard hypodermic needle injection (which didn't really bother me much as a kid, anyway), but it was quick, taking maybe 10 minutes, tops, to administer to a class of 30 students. School officials really played up the fact that there was no needle involved, and I think this had the psychological effect of making it much easier on the students who were scared of any type of injection.

I'll admit I'm jumping the gun with my reply here, so I'll need to read a little more to see what the difference is between the old pneumatic injectors and this new-fangled device.

Re:yeah, but will it hit my vein?

[B'Trey]

It was used a lot later than the '70s. I joined the Navy in 1985 and I received a number of innoculations using these. I can't say for certain but organic ram suggests it continued until the mid '90s.

They weren't any less painful than a needle, but they were much quicker and they were foolproof. Literally anybody could use one. You just put it against the arm and pull the trigger.

I believe they were discontinued because of safety reasons. I believe they found out that there was a possibility of microdrops of blood being blasted back out of the skin, and then injected into the next person.

As Seen on TV

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been covered that needleless injections are probably 50 years old. Its been mentioned that people in africa and the army should be familiar with them. What hasn't been said is that these are so not new, that 9 years ago I saw on in a box that had the red tv box logo on it "As Seen on TV" Yup as in sold through infomercials.

Re:pneumatic injectors are painful

[rworne]

Such a device was used in the military. At boot camp one of these "air gun" devices was used to inoculate all the recruits:

Swab, *thwop*, swab, *thwop*, etc. about 3-5 seconds per person.

Key thing is not to flinch or move when they pull the trigger. If you do, the jet of vaccine works just like a water-cutter on skin.

Re:Its not the needle

[JNighthawk]

No, for me, it's the needle. I have an INTENSE fear of needles.

When I was younger, my mom got something (hepatitis maybe?), so they had to test the family. I was about 5 at the time. I go in and they attempt to draw blood from me. They couldn't find the vein. So what do they do? They keep trying. I ended up being pricked about 15 times in each arm, til my mom stopped it. Those fucking idiots scarred me for life by doing that and now I can't stand to be near needles. Whenever I need to have shots, I need to take something beforehand, either laughing gas, vikadin or something along those lines. A needle-free injection would help me A LOT.

Re:Its not the needle

[xanthines-R-yummy]

The tetanus shot (or vaccine to be more accurate) contains something called an adjuvant that actually irritates the area where you receive the injection. This is to promote immunological activity to increase the effiacy of the shot. I took part in an experimental trial where they gave tetanus shots without the adjuvant and my arm didn't hurt at all.

I had talked with three different companies

[musiholic]

back in the end of the 90s about using needle-less injectors to deliver microencapsulated drugs throught the skin. A team of us investigated the prospect, as injecting depot systems with needles causes lots of hold-up/loss in the vial and needle - and overfill is moreexpensive than normal. There was a ton of various injection technology back then, and it isn't like these people have stagnated innovation, especially as high-potency drugs are being investigated - so you need very small injection volumes. Insuling injections always seem to be pushing the market, but it is quickly adapted other places in pharma and biotech.

Re:worst article eh-ver!

[Queer Boy]

"The researchers even joke that the MicroJet injector could be used to make getting tattoos much more bearable."

One of the most attractive aspects of getting a tattoo is that it hurts. It means that not everyone can stand to have it done and that if you have a big tattoo (as I do) that says a lot. I don't want some Blink 182/Lit/Linkin Park loving wuss (anyone else notice that all these bands are from affluent white neighbourhoods?) ruining that.

Re:yeah, but will it hit my vein?

[Deadstick]

IIRC, they stopped using that thing because it had a tendency to pick up bacteria from your skin and ram them inside.

rj

I remember when this was cool

[BobaFett]

I remember when I was a kid growing up in the Soviet Union, we had yearly tuberculosis tests. Some years they were given not with a syringe but with a device about the size of hand-held bycicle pump: the nurse would "pump" it once, i.e. pull the top half and press it back into the bottom half, this armed some spring which was enough for several shots. The device was placed on the skin but it had no needle, it made a hiss and fired a jet of liquid into the skin. Did not penetrate very far, just under the skin. When I first saw it, it was way cool. But that was about 25 years ago.

Re:Celebrities use...

[TimeTraveler1884]

I know, oxycotton. I was kidding.

Spelling rarely rises to such levels of hilarity as it does on Slashdot

And people on Slashdot can rarely speak street slang. oxycotton [webmd.com]

Feb. 9, 2001 -- The official name is OxyContin, but on the street it's known as "oxycotton." And at a dollar a milligram, it's the drug du jour from the coal-mining country of Kentucky to the bleak factory towns of rural Maine.