Laterally Dispersing Nozzles for Needle-assisted Jet Injection

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Drug Delivery Systems
• Minimally Invasive Procedures

Background:

• Conventional transdermal drug delivery typically involves perpendicular injection.
• Certain applications, like local anesthesia, require drug dispersion parallel to the skin surface.
• Existing jet injection systems lack targeted lateral dispersion capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate novel nozzles for needle-assisted jet injection.
• To achieve lateral dispersion of fluid drugs at a specific tissue depth.
• To assess the potential of this technique for transdermal local anaesthetic delivery.

Main Methods:

• Manufacturing of specialized nozzles by laser machining hypodermic needles.
• Utilizing an existing controllable jet injection system for nozzle testing.
• High-speed video analysis of jet emissions and post-mortem porcine tissue injection studies.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated successful lateral drug dispersion at depths of 3-4 mm in tissue.
• Observed maximal dispersion at the orifice depth and in the direction of the jets.
• Confirmed the capability of the designed nozzles to create widely spread dispersions.

Conclusions:

• The developed nozzles effectively achieve lateral drug dispersion via needle-assisted jet injection.
• The technique shows promise for enhancing transdermal local anaesthetic delivery.
• Further in vivo studies are necessary to validate clinical efficacy regarding time, cost, and pain reduction.