FI94593C - inhaler - Google Patents

Description

, - 94593

Inhalation device - Inhaleringsanordning

There are many devices for administering aerosols for nasal and / or oral inhalation. Such devices are now well known for administering drugs to patients suffering from pulmonary diseases such as asthma. The most significant problem with such aerosols has been that it is difficult for many patients to coordinate drug release at the start of inhalation. For many people, such as elderly patients and children, this pacing is difficult. These problems have been alleviated by respiratory devices such as those disclosed in, for example, U.S. Patents 3,639,949; 3,789,843; 3,826,413; and-WO85 / 01880. Sometimes these devices are also called inhalation-oriented aerosols or, more simply, "traction valves". With these devices, there is simply a need for manual coordination so that the devices operate automatically when the patient inhales with the lips in contact with the mouthpiece. Only a slight vacuum is required to trigger a simple piece of equipment that actuates the dosing valve. The device must then be reset before the dosing valve can operate again. The present application relates to such a breathing device, but discloses improvements to the devices disclosed in said patents; in the sense that the structure of the device according to the invention minimizes accidental firings and the firing can, however, be carried out with the least possible effort.

One long-standing problem in the development of a respiratory dispenser has been the incompatibility that exists *. in the sense that a strong spring is required in the device to overcome the spring of the inner aerosol valve to perform the trigger and, on the other hand, only light pressure needs to be provided to enable the impaired individuals to trigger the device. The connection between these two elements has previously been so subtle that · · 2 94593 that even the surface coefficient of friction of materials has had to be taken into account. By incorporating an intermediate tuning element and other improvements to achieve mechanical benefits, the present invention provides a secure yet sensitive lock and the degree of security required in drug delivery devices.

The device according to the invention according to the preamble of claim 1, characterized in that the means defining the recess comprise a movable cradle supporting the body part of the aerosol module, the transfer means being operable to move the cradle relative to the body and thereby displacing the body part. removably mounted on said body and connected to the cradle to provide movement of the cradle relative to the body in response to movement of the lever relative to the body, spring members connected to the lever to cause displacement , wherein the latch release members operate to disengage the latch members from the tuner.

•

The invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 3 94593 is a vertical section of a first embodiment of the device showing its components in their inoperative position; Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the device of Fig. 1 showing its components in a pre-use position; Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the device of Fig. 1 showing the components in their operative position; Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4-4 of Fig. 1; Figures 5-7 correspond to Figures 1-3 showing the second embodiment in a corresponding order; Figures 8a and 8b are a side view and a plan view, respectively, of the handle used in the second embodiment. Figure 8a also shows a part of a strap attached to it; Figures 9a and 9b are a perspective view and a cross-section, respectively, of the tuner used in the second embodiment of Figures 9a to 9b to 9b.

• · 94593 4

According to Figures 1-4 of the drawings, the device shown therein comprises a body 10 delimiting two chambers 12 and 14. The closure portion 16 is hinged at one end by a pin 18 to the other side of the chamber 12, with a latch element 20 attached to the other end of the closure. with.

The cradle portion 24 is mounted within the chamber 12 to move vertically therein. The cradle 24 has a semicircular sidewall 26 having dimensions and shape substantially corresponding to the length and cross section of the aerosol module A to be placed in the chamber and a bottom wall 28 having a circular opening 30 to support the module in an inverted position in the chamber so that its mandrel 32 extends through the bottom wall Preferably, the upper end of the cradle 24 has a cover element 34 which engages the bottom of the module to hold the module firmly against the base 28. The cradle 24 is able to move vertically in the body 10 and includes members in the form of a bracket or fork lever 36 in the raised position. in its depressed position.

Attached to the portion below the cradle 24 of the body 10 in a fixed position is a nozzle portion 38 having an opening 40. The nozzle portion 38 is positioned aligned with the mandrel 32 to receive the mandrel 32. The orifice 40 is connected by a passage 42 to an outlet 44, the capsule of which is concentrically centered with respect to the orifice 46 formed in the lower part of the chamber 12, in which an annular mouthpiece 48 is placed. In this structure and as will be explained below, the aerosol module Because the mandrel 32 remains in place in the nozzle portion 38 during use, the desired placement structure is maintained at all times.

Discharge from the module is caused by moving the cradle 24 downward relative to the nozzle portion 38 to move the mandrel 32 in the module 94593. The aerosol module has a metering valve such that the transfer of the mandrel 32 pushes out the material contained in the metering module through the nozzle element and directs it through the mouthpiece 48. After this dose has left, other material can only be pushed out of the mandrel after the mandrel has first burned to its inoperative position and then moved back to its operative position.

As shown in Fig. 4, the fork-like lever 36 is provided with transversely spaced arms 50, each having a respective support pin 52 pivotally supported on opposite side walls 54 of the body to perform pivotal movement about a horizontal axis between its opposite ends. At one end, the arms 50 of the fork or handle are pivotally connected to the lower end of the cradle by corresponding support pins 56. At its opposite end, a lever 36 is connected by an arm 57 and a coupling element.58 to the lower end 61,1 of a tension spring 60 mounted inside the chamber 14. The arm 54 has an opening 71 with opposing projecting sides 73 through which the coupling element 58 extends. The upper end 61,2 of the spring 60 is connected to a pin 62 fixed between the walls of the chamber 14.

At the lower end of the chamber 14 is mounted a tuner or sill 64 which can rotate about a horizontal axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the lever 36. The tuner 64 extends across the chamber 14 from one side wall 54 to another and is adapted to perform a pivoting movement about the above-mentioned horizontal axis by means of supported support or hinge pins 64.1 pivoting to the side walls 54. A recess 66 is formed in the center of the tuner 64, which is generally rectangular in cross-section and engages the lever:; The outer head portion 68 and the recess 66 are dimensioned and positioned so that the main portion 68 engages the recess 66 in the immediate vicinity of the pivot axis to minimize the forces on the lever 36 as the elements engage each other. The tuner 64 can rotate about its axis between two positions, in which position it holds the outer end 68 of the lever 36 depressed (Figure 1), in which position the opposite end of the lever holds the cradle 24 raised and thus the spindle 32 fully protruded and in the second position the outer end portion 68 of the lever 36 is released and allows the spring to raise the lever 36 to a horizontal position (Figure 3) so that the cradle lowers to a position where the spindle 32 is forcibly inserted into the module and causes an aerosol discharge.

The latch portion 70 has a pair of arms 70a and is pivotally attached at 72 to the side walls 54 to move about a horizontal axis parallel to the axis of the tuner. Arranged at the axially opposite ends of the latch 70 are a pair of stops 74, each of which can engage a corresponding arm 76 in the same part as the tuner.

In the inoperative position of the device shown in Figure 1, the lever 36 is held in a depressed position by a tuner or pivot strap 78 having one end connected to a switch 58 to which a spring 60 is attached and a lid 80 fitted over the end of the mouthpiece 48. When the cover 80 is fitted to the mouthpiece, the strap 58 keeps the strap stretched by the clutch 58 and the lever 36 in the depressed position so that its outer end engages the tuner 64. In this position, the latch portion 70 abuts the arm 76. An air regulator 79 in the latch position is parallel to the wall 82 of the chamber 14 and covers the opening 84 in the wall in this parallel position. In the inoperative position, the lid 80 is attached to the mouthpiece 48, the air regulator abuts the wall 82 to cover the opening 84 and the lever remains in the position shown in FIG. by means of a spring 60 so that the spindle 32 is fully protruding, i.e. in the closed position.

To tune the device for use, the cover 80 is removed from the mouthpiece 48, Figure 2. Removing the cover allows the strap to release the outer end of the arm 57 so that the outer end of the lever 36 remains depressed only because the lever 36 cannot move unless its outer end 68 rotates. the tuner and the tuner cannot turn due to the arms 76 being attached to the stops 74 of the latch portion 70. When the cover 80 is removed, the device is ready for use. As the user inhales through the mouthpiece 48, thereby reducing the pressure in the chamber 14, the air regulator 79 pivots to its left from its position against the wall 82 as shown in FIG. The left movement of the air regulator 79 releases the stops 74 of the latch portion 70 from the arm 76, thereby releasing the tuner 64 to pivot. In this case, the spring 60 can pull the right-hand end of the lever 36 upwards. Since the lever 36 is adapted to pivot relative to the body by means of the hinge pins 52, this causes the left end of the lever 36 to move downwards so that the cradle 24 moves with it. The downward movement of the cradle 24 moves or pushes the mandrel 32 into the module and this causes the aerosol to be discharged from the module through the nozzle and mouthpiece. When inhalation is interrupted, the air regulator returns to its closed position due to gravity.

After inhalation, the user grasps the cover 80 and pulls it down against the force exerted by the spring 60 through the belt 78. The user can then reattach the cover or hat 80 to the mouthpiece 48. The device is thus returned to the position shown in Figure 1. It can be seen that in this case, among other things, the lever 36, the tuner 64 and the latch part 70 returned to the positions according to Fig. 1, and it will now be briefly explained how this takes place. When the cover and strap are pulled down, the lever 36 turns on the hinge pin. around the small 52 in Figures 1-3 clockwise, reaching a point where the outer end portion 68 contacts the recess 66 in the center of the tuner 64. The downward movement of the cover and the strap continues, and then the grip between the outer end portion 68 and the recess 66 causes the tuner 64 to turn counterclockwise.

• ·, 94593 During this counterclockwise pivoting movement, the arms 76 strike the lower surfaces of the respective latch portion arms 70a, and thus the latch portion 70 has to rotate counterclockwise by a small angle, allowing the arms 76 to pass. As soon as the arms 76 have passed the respective stops 74, the latch portion 70 can fall freely into the position shown in Figure 1 by gravity with each arm 76 attached behind the respective stop 74. At this point, the situation shown in Figure 1 is achieved.

The embodiment shown in Figures 5-9 is in many respects similar to the embodiment shown in Figures 1-4 and will therefore not be described in detail. Those elements of the embodiment of Figures 5-9 which broadly correspond to the elements of the embodiment of Figures 1-4 are shown by the same reference numerals with the addition of 100. Next, attention is drawn to more important aspects in which the embodiment of Figures 5-9 differs from the embodiment of Figures 1-4.

Attention is first drawn to the structure of the tuner 164. For clarity, this is shown on an enlarged scale in a perspective view in Figure 9. It can be seen that each arm 176 has a protrusion 176a projecting approximately radially in a direction that is generally protective. at an angle to the direction in which the main end of the arm 176 extends. As can be seen in Figure 5, when the device is in the inoperative position, one of these protrusions 176a presses against a matte spring 200 which is generally U-shaped and which is secured to the bottom of the body between its ends.

The spring 200 extends from the second side wall 154 of the roller around a laterally extending pin 201. The spring includes upwardly bent portions 200a and 200b located on opposite sides of the pin and positioning the spring relative to the pin. The spring extension 200c is inclined upwards and is pressed down by the projection 176a •, »9 94593 with the elements in the position shown in Fig. 5. For this reason, the flat spring pushes the tuner clockwise. It is not necessary to place a second matte spring on the other side of the device and, strictly speaking, the second protrusion 176a is therefore unnecessary. The protrusions 176a first prevent the tuner from turning too far counterclockwise as seen in Figures 5-7. If no protrusions were present at all, the tuner could rotate so long that the recess 166 would not be positioned to engage the outer end 168 of the lever 136 when the device was returned to its inoperative initial position after inhalation (i.e., returned to the position shown in Figure 5). The presence of the protrusions 176a and the clockwise compression of the spring 200 acting on the protrusion 176a ensures that the recess 166 is in place after inhalation so that the outer end portion 168 can engage it.

The spring 200 engaging the protruding protrusion 176a is subjected to a slight force from the spring and this provides an additional impetus to the tuner to ensure its clockwise rotation upon inhalation, which force is greater than the force exerted by the outer end 168 of the lever 136 on the cavity 166.

It can also be seen from Figure 9 that there is an additional protrusion 176b on the side of the arm 176 opposite to the protrusion 176a. As can be seen by looking at Figure 7, for example, the protrusions 176b prevent the tuner from turning excessively clockwise by abutting against the bottom wall of the body.

A notable additional aspect of the tuner is that the tuner portions immediately on either side of the recess 166 are ·. provided with recesses 169. In the initial stage of returning the device after inhalation to the position shown in Figure 5, counterclockwise rotation of the tuner 168 is provided so that the outer end 168 of the lever 136 engages the recess 166. However, the final step of this counterclockwise rotation is provided by 169 attachment. At this point, it will be appreciated that the fork lever 136 differs somewhat from the fork lever 36 used in the first embodiment. In particular, the arm 57 is absent, with a pair of unrelated rear arms 202 extending rearwardly from the main portion of the lever 136. At the upper end of the belt there is a portion 178a between the arms 202 which is smaller in width and greater in thickness, and immediately above and below the arms are portions having a full width and greater thickness. The portion above the arms is concave and abuts a pair of convex recesses 203, one of which is formed in each arm 202.

The U-shaped spring 200 has a purpose other than to apply a force to the second protrusion 176a. As can be seen from Figures 5-7, the top of the spring is pressed against the second arm 70a of the latch portion 70. This ensures that after the cover 180 has been removed from the nozzle 148 as shown in Figure 6, the latch portion 70 cannot be accidentally detached from the arms 136 and that detachment occurs only when the user inhales. The presence of the spring 200 means that a small additional force must be provided by inhalation to release the latch portion from the arms 176, but this additional force is negligible provided the spring 200 is selected to be suitably weak. Furthermore, the force of the spring 200, when required, is at least counterbalanced or canceled as the structure of the air regulator is improved as shown in the embodiment of Figures 5-9 compared to the air regulator used in the embodiment of Figures 1-4. As can be seen from Figure 5, the air regulator 179 is provided with side walls 179a extending forwardly from the main part of the air regulator and approximately perpendicular thereto. These side walls are each close to the corresponding side wall 154 and their presence helps to ensure that the suction force generated by the patient's inhalation generates very effectively the force on the air regulator.

"94593

The main part of the air regulator 179 has a button 179b, which in the position shown in Fig. 5 is located in the opening 184. The main purpose of this is to provide a button which is easily and clearly identified as such by the user. At this point, it may be mentioned that if desired, the user does not need to operate the device automatically by inhalation, but can operate it by pressing button 179b, thus causing the air regulator 179 to move inward just as it would have moved if the patient had moved it by inhalation.

It is to be understood that the foregoing description of the invention merely illustrates the purpose of the invention and encompasses all modifications or improvements within the scope of the appended claims.

• *

Claims (15)

An inhalation device for use with an aerosol module (A), comprising a body portion and a metering spindle (32) movable relative to the body portion from a ejection-inhibiting release position to a release-permissible operating position, comprising: (a) body (10, 110), (b) means arranged in the body (24, 124) defining a depression for receiving the aerosol module (A), (c) a discharge nozzle part (38, 138) arranged in the body in a distance relative to the recess defining means (24, 124) and having a spindle receiving portion for receiving the dosing spindle, (d) displacement means (36, 136) for displacing the body portion of the aerosol module (A) toward the discharge nozzle portion (38, 138) and away therefrom, whereby the movement of the body member towards the lead nozzle part causes the spindle (32) to be displaced to its working position, (e) spring means (60, 160) to push the displacement members (36, 136) in a direction permitting the operation of the spindle (32), (f) means for obstructing the movement of said displacement member in said working direction, the obstructing means comprising control means (70) arranged in the body (10) which prevent the sliding means (36, 136) for displacing the body portion to the permissive position of a spindle; and (g) means (79, 179) for releasing the control means (70) such that the spring means (60, 160) can displace the displacement means (36, 136) to a position in which the dosing spindle can operate, characterized in that (h) ) means defining the preamp include a slidable cradle (24, 124) supporting the body portion of the aerosol module (A), the sliding means (36, 136) being used to displace the cradle (24, 124) relative to the body (10, 110) and by means of this, the body part displaces, (i) displacement means (36, 136) comprises an arm (36, 136) which is displaceably arranged at said body (10, 110) and joined to the cradle (24, 124). ) to effect the movement of the cradle relative to the housing as a result of the movement of the arm relative to the body; (j) spring means (60, 160) are attached to the arm (36, 136) to effect pressure of the displacements; and (k) the obstructing members comprise a rotatable act the locking means (64, 164) arranged in the body (10, 110) for displacing the engagement with the arm (36, 136), the control means (70) being displaceable with the actuating means (64, 164) for holding the actuating means in a position in engagement with the arm, wherein the function of the control release member (79, 179) is to release the control means from the actuating means. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the arm (36, 136) is pivotally secured at a point between its ends to the body (10, 110) to perform a pivotal movement about the shaft and one end of the arm is joined to the cradle. (24, 124) and the other end is arranged to engage the actuator (64, 164). Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the actuator (64, 164) is arranged to perform a pivotal movement about the axis, parallel to the axis of the pivotal movement of the arm (36, 136) and that the other end of the arm engages the pivotal axis of the actuator immediately. . Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a pivotal arm (36, 136, coupled pivot part (78, 178)) is used, the use of which displaces the arm against the spring part in a position where the spindle cannot function. 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that there are means for actuating the pivot member (78) and for hindering the function of the pivot member. , β 94593 6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the body (10, 110) has an opening (48, 148) adjacent the discharge nozzle part (38, 138) through which the aerosol triggered by the valve spindle projectes and extends to the function permissible. and the preventive means hear a shutter (80, 180) attached to the pivot member (78, 178) and arranged to close the aperture (48, 148) as the pivot member function is impeded. Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the shutter (80, 180) is connected to the arm (36, 136) by a flexible belt (78, 178). Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the rule (70) is pivotally supported at one end and has at its other end an arm (79, 179) which is accessible through an opening (84, 184) in the body. (10, 110) to manually shift it in a direction where the rule detaches from the actuator (64, 164). Device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the rule (70) is pivotally supported at one end and has at its other end an air regulator (79, 179) and the body (79, 179) arranged in the frame (10, 110). 10, '110) at least have an opening (84, 184) covered by the air regulator, since the actuator (64, 164) engages in the rule so that, compared with ambient pressure, the lower pressure inside the body (10, 110) displaces the air regulator. in a direction in which the actuator is released. / 10. Device according to Claim 9, characterized in that there is an additional spring part (200) for pushing the rule into its covering position (84). Device according to any of the above claims, characterized in that the arm (36, 136) has a part arranged to engage a corresponding cooperating part of the actuator (64, 164) to force the actuator to pivot in a some direction to its regulating position under the influence of this force, such as the spring portion (60, 160) in addition to the arm. 12. Apparatus according to claim 11, characterized in that the cooperating parts function as the control is released from the actuator and causes further oscillation of the actuator (64, 164) in the said certain direction to its rest position. Device according to claim 12, characterized in that it has an auxiliary spring (200) to promote the additional oscillation. Device according to claims 12 - 13, which is dependent on some of claims 4-7, characterized in that it has a pivoting part which is coupled to the arm and displaces the arm against the spring part to a position which causes the spindle to function and the cooperating members during the actuation of this movement pivots the actuator (64, 164) in an opposite direction to said certain direction to return it to its regulating position. ·; · 15th Device according to any of claims 11-14, characterized in that the actuating means (64, 164) is provided with parts (176a, 176b) which prevent oscillatory movement outside a predetermined range. • · • ·