Five-in-one: a novel, cost-effective yet simple use of micro needle holder

AIM: To achieve a balance between efficiency and cost in the management of medical instrument by the use of micro needle holder. METHODS: In this study, the novel multifunctional use of micro needle holders was performed between 2018 and 2019 at the Department of Ophthalmology in the 4 hospitals in Shaanxi Province. In this innovation, the micro needle holders were initially used as micro forceps to remove sutures, as eye spud to safety extract foreign body from cornea, as ciliary forceps to remove trichiasis, as well as punctal dilator to dilate most small puncta. RESULTS: Using this technique, the medical costs of both procurement and sterilization were cut off in the selected 4 hospitals. The purchase cost has dropped by roughly 50%. The sterilization cost was decreased by about 30%. CONCLUSION: The innovation in the five-in-one multifunctional use of micro needle holders saves the medical costs.

Clinical application rules of different micro needle system therapy

Different micro needle system therapies have different advantages and characteristics.However,at present,the dominant diseases for which each therapy is appropriate are positioned relatively vaguely,and even the acupoint selections for the same disease are different.The clinical application of the dominant disease and application characteristics of each micro needle system therapy is a scientific problem that needs to be explored urgently.Based on the previous data mining study of the clinical application of auricular acupuncture,scalp acupuncture,abdominal acupuncture,eye acupuncture,wrist-ankle acupuncture,hand acupuncture,the second metacarpal bone lateral needling,facial acupuncture,mouth acupuncture and nose acupuncture,the diseases reported more in the clinical literature of each therapy were extracted to find out the same symptoms applicable to different micro needle systems.The clinical application and differences of different micro needle systems for the same disease were compared horizontally,and it demonstrated that the second metacarpal bone lateral needling,facial needle,mouth acupuncture and nose acupuncture were biased towards a partial corresponding therapeutic relationship between one part and the other part,and the eye acupuncture was biased to interfere with the whole by adjusting the function of the organs,and the auricular,scalp and abdominal needles had the both characteristics,and the wrist-malleolus acupuncture and hand acupuncture were often used in various disorders of the meridian-collateral level.The differences were researched and summarized to more accurately guide clinicians in the application of different micro needle system therapies.

SILICON NEEDLE ARRAY ON FLEXIBLE SUBSTRATE FOR FLUID TRANSFER

Transdermal delivery is an attractive alternative, but it is limited by the extremely low permeability of skin. To solve this problem, a novel means--micro needle array based on micro electro-mechanical system （MEMS） technology, is provided to increase permeability of human skin with efficiency, safety and painless delivery. The fabrication method consists of a sequence of deep-reactive ion etching （DRIE）, anisotropic wet etching and conformal thin film deposition. The novel technology can enable the realization of micro fabricated micro needle array on a flexible silicon substrate. The micro needle array can be mounted on non-planar surface or even on flexible objects such as a human fingers and arms. The fabricated hollow wall straight micro needles are 200 μm in length, 30 μm inner diameter, and 50 μm outer diameter with 250 μm center-to-center spacing. Flow rate test proves that the polymeric base construction is important to function of micro needles array in package. Glucose solvent tests show that surface tension is the dominant force to affect the characters of flow in micro needles channel.