Medical treatments often involve parenteral administration of liquid drugs to the human body. The liquid drugs can be in the form of solutions, suspensions, and the like. Some drugs reagents have extended shelf-lives in a dry state and only short shelf-lives after reconstitution or rehydration.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,932 to Taylor discloses an inline drug delivery pack (35) that connects inline with an intravenous (IV) line and allows for the mixing of diluent with a drug reagent to be delivered to a patient. The drug delivery pack includes a housing (37) with a reagent bed (110) consisting of a fluid soluble material suitable to administration to a patient via dissolution and IV drip. The housing includes inlet radial fins (65) which cooperate with back pressure from an inlet frit (80) to promote a uniform distribution of diluent across the entire cross section of the drug delivery pack. An internal drug bed bypass mechanism is tailored to apportion diluent flow between the bypass and the drug bed to achieve a solution concentration suitable for IV administration as the dried reagent is dissolved.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,613 to Reif et al. discloses a genetic vaccination device and a process for forming an injection solution therefor. The device includes a syringe (2) and a cannula (3) coupled to an inline membrane adsorber (5) having genetic material adsorbed thereon. The process includes eluting the genetic material from the membrane adsorber so as to form an injection solution containing the genetic material.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0294100 to de Costa et al. discloses a pharmaceutical device for the administration of substrates to a patient. The de Costa pharmaceutical device is similar to the aforementioned Reif genetic vaccination device insofar it includes an inline porous membrane supporting a glassy material soluble in water and having biological materials such as vaccines stabilized thereon such that when the biological material requires administration, eluent can be passed across the membrane dissolving the glass and causing the substance to be carried by the liquid into a patient.
The Reif genetic vaccination device and the de Costa pharmaceutical device are relatively heavy and cumbersome to handle during injection of an injection solution to a patient. Furthermore, their device housings containing the dry drug dosage to be injected to a patient necessarily impose injections at larger injection angles to a patient's body than is customary.
There is a need for medical devices with an inline dry drug module for facilitating injecting an injection solution to a patient.