Impulse-powered needle-free syringe for vaccine/drug injection

A needle-free vaccine/drug injector that works by virtue of the impulse of a moving shock wave is presented in this communication. The device can deliver controlled micro-volumes of liquid vaccines into skin and soft tissue targets in human with minimal invasion. The operation of the injector was investigated by delivering a dyed liquid into human skin samples and soft tissue models. The depth of penetration of the liquid was examined by histology of the targeted human skin samples. The delivery mechanics and the depth of penetration were analyzed theoretically with an elastic model for the skin and a viscoelastic model for the soft tissue targets, and a good agreement with experiments was observed. The current liquid vaccine/drug delivery technique can reduce pain, trauma and contamination, and can offer a cost-effective, needle-free, health-care solution.