Image: The Navigator Delivery System (Navigator DS) (Photo courtesy of Carticept Medical).

A novel drug delivery system automates some of the steps involved in preparing and delivering intra-articular pain medication.

The Navigator Delivery System (Navigator DS) is a computer-controlled drug delivery system designed to automate preparation and delivery of pain relieving medications for joint pain by from standard multidose anesthetic and steroid drug vials; the injection is then delivered into the painful joint under precise computer control. In addition to eliminating multiple needle exposures to health care workers, and minimizing the potential for contamination of the medication, automating the drug delivery procedure ensures accurate dose preparation and saves significant staff labor.

Standard multidose anesthetic and steroid drug vials are attached to the top of the device, after which the system prepares the injections for controlled delivery as per physician specifications. The control screen provides the user with a real-time record of the specified fluid and medication, prescription volume, and an image of the syringe displaying the delivery status. The Navigator DS also automates accurate medical record keeping by saving the treatment data for transfer to an electronic record management system, or direct printout. The Navigator DS is a product of Carticept Medical (Alpharetta, GA, USA), and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“This technology can be a valuable tool for the accurate and efficient delivery of injections,” said John Reach, MD, director of the foot and ankle service at Yale University School of Medicine (New Haven, CT, USA). “This system can significantly enhance practice logistics and increase patient throughput in orthopedic and sports medicine clinics.”

The use of injections is a highly effective way to produce symptomatic and therapeutic benefit in the management of arthritis related disease. The joint injection should be a relatively low pain procedure. Large joint injections (especially the knee) should not be painful, but small joint injections in the hands may be tender, due to the narrowness of the joint space and also because the hands are designed physiologically to be sensitive to painful stimuli.

Guangzhou Jia Yu medical equipment Limited