REVOLUTIONS MEDICAL CORPORATION

Rev Vac Safety Syringe Competition

There are currently four general types of safety syringes

Sheathing tube syringes
Sliding needle covers
Hinged needle Covers; and
Spring retractable syringes

Sheathing Tube Syringes
BD Safety-Lok
Kendall Monoject

Require two hands to operate.
Require a second hand moving closer to the needle to activate them.
Harder to read the scales because of the sheath.
Many reported problems of being able to reliably engage the safety mechanisms.
Must retract from the injection site, exposing the needle before actuation.
Take up more room in expensive sharps containers.
Use of the BD Safety-lok syringe increased needlesticks at Kaiser Permanente.
The Kendall syringe requires a second operation in order to lock it in place. The same old problem with a new twist.

Sliding Needle Covers
BD Safety Glide
Kendall Magellan (needle only)

Require a grip change.
Safety feature actuation requires a thumb or finger in closer proximity to the needle.
Must retract from the injection site, exposing the needle before actuation.
Kaiser’s use of the BD SafetyGlide failed to reduce needle sticks during one year of wide-spread use.

Hinged Needle Covers
BD Eclipse
Terumo Surguard

Necessitate reaching next to the needle to move the cover out of the way in order to give an injection.
Require a grip change to operate a safety feature.
Puts at least one finger in close proximity to the needle after the injection.
Must retract from the injection site, exposing the needle before actuation.
Cumbersome to use.
Flipping motion as the needle snaps into the cover can cause blood splatter.

Spring Retractable Syringes
NMT
Vanishing Point
BD Integra

Splatter on activation.
Aerosol residual contents, potentially spreading contagious viruses.
Difficult to actuate, requiring over 9 lbs of push.
Actuation can cause movement of the needle resulting in tissue trauma.
Weak springs don’t always pull the needle out of the patient.
The needle hanging up in the muscle and skin flips back, splattering the needle’s contents on the operator.
Viruses can be picked up through contact with the eye, nose, mouth, or skin.

Other disadvantages of the competitors’ safety syringes

Difficult to learn to use.
Require extensive training.
Lack of instructions on the device pouches.
Lack of confirmation that the safety mechanism is locked.
Many safety syringes are currently discarded in sharps containers without actuation because they are difficult or cumbersome to activate.
As a group they give healthcare workers a false sense of security.
Calling them Safety Syringes is a major misnomer.

The lack of instructions on the pouches is a real problem at hospitals, where medical professionals grab a syringe that requires instruction out of a bulk bin.

Many syringes are packaged in pouches that don’t break open and the operator is required to fumble with the “peel open” corner. This can be a real problem when a syringe is required rapidly in an emergency.

Companies listed in the Frost and Sullivan report 7764-54 entitled “U.S Needles, Syringes & Needleless Device Market” listed 9 companies offering safety syringes. Of those listed, Becton Dickinson led the market with an estimated 54% market share with Kendall Healthcare second with 37% and the remaining seven companies accounting for 9%.

Company Name	Product	Safety Feature	Automatic
Becton Dickinson	Safety Glide/Safety Lok	Sliding Sleeve	No
Kendall Healthcare	Monoject	Sliding Sheath	No
Medi-Hut Co. Inc.	Elite Safety Syringe	Sheath	Yes
New Medical Technology, Inc.	NMT Safety Syringe	Retraction	Yes
Retractable Technologies, Inc.	Vanish Point Syringe	Retraction	Yes
Safety Medical Supply Intl.	Safety Tip	Sheath	No
Safety 1^st Medical	Safety – 1^st	Retraction	Yes
SIMS Portex, Inc.	Needle Pro	Sheath	No
Sterimatic Medical Corp.	Sterimatic Safety Needle	Sheath	Yes
Univec, Inc.	Univec Sliding Sheath	Sliding Sheath	Yes

Source: Frost & Sullivan, February 20, 2001 U.S. Needles, Syringes & Needleless Device Market Report

An October 1999 report released by the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) entitled “Sharps Safety and Needlestick Prevention”, found that all of the safety syringes offered by the major syringe companies have significant limitations or are not acceptable as safety devices.