Importance

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Abstract

A hand-held and operated pneumatically powered device for injecting fluids, such as in medical applications, consisting of a housing that is sized and shaped to be hand held, and connected power and infusion assemblies contained within the housing. The power assembly includes a sealed vessel containing pressurized gas, a lever-needle vessel-puncturing mechanism, a gas flow path leading from the needle to the infusion assembly, and pressure regulator and pressure relief mechanism (which may include a pneumatic flow control orifice) interposed in the flow path. The infusion assembly includes a two-way valve for exhausting the gas or directing it into a power chamber for receiving the gas connected in tandem with an infusion chamber that holds the infusate, a two-headed piston contained within and spanning the two chambers with one of its heads in contact with the pressurized gas and the other in contact with the infusate, and a throttle mechanism at the outlet of the infusion chamber for regulating the pressurized flow of infusate into and out of the infusion chamber by means of a two-way valve. A pressure gauge may be provided for measuring the pressure of the infusate. In one embodiment, two power infusion devices are coupled together with a common pressurized gas source and are also coupled together at their outlets for providing two different infusates to the proximal and distal ends of a catheter. A ball valve is utilized to purge the infusates of entrapped gas.

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First Claim