Ceramic microneedles to make injections painless

Rest assured, we've "seen" methods of delivering injections sans pain, but we've yet to actually experience this phenomenon ourselves. If Dr. Roger Narayan has anything to do about it, however, we may not feel even a pinch the next time the blood drive comes calling. A team of researchers led by the aforementioned individual has reportedly been able to use "two-photon polymerization of organically modified ceramic (Ormocer) hybrid materials to create microneedles resistant to breakage," and they can also be made in a wider range of sizes than metal counterparts. It's said that these very needles would be "so fine that patients wouldn't feel them piercing their skin," and while that sure sounds delightful, we've no idea how many more visits we'll make before finding one of these in the nurse's hand.

[Via medGadget, image courtesy of Rice]

[Crazylink @ Jan 12th 2008 9:13PM]

To get enough blood through that thin of a syringe would take forever.

[Juaquin @ Jan 12th 2008 11:48PM]

These needles will most likely be used for injections, not for drawing blood. As it stands now, they generally use a wider needle to draw blood already, and they probably won't be getting much smaller.

[Sartor @ Jan 12th 2008 9:34PM]

And spys across the globe rejoice.

[Ron @ Jan 13th 2008 8:03AM]

that's what I was thinking too...

[WiiFTW @ Jan 13th 2008 2:18PM]

And medics in Team Fortress 2 are even more pissed because their syringe guns have stopped doing any damage period. At least they used to do around one hp a critical.

Had to toss in the TF2 comment by the way. Especially since you mentioned spies.

[John @ Jan 12th 2008 9:35PM]

if it's such a small needle, wouldn't it take much longer for the injection?

[Taylor @ Jan 13th 2008 2:02AM]

10 seconds of pain versus 20 seconds of nothing...

[Craig @ Jan 12th 2008 10:03PM]

Blood drive? It's going to take about a week to get a pint of blood through that needle.

[ethana2 @ Jan 13th 2008 1:51AM]

It comes in pints? I'm getting one.

[morcheeba @ Jan 13th 2008 3:06AM]

They use 20 needles at a time to speed up the blood-drawing process. It's still painless.

[derX @ Jan 12th 2008 10:05PM]

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Lovely, they can make a needle impeccably thing as to reduce pain, but if the needle is too thin, would it not more time for the injection versus a thicker needle? If said needle would be so thin, its prick is painless, how practical would it really be?

[Josh McGrath @ Jan 13th 2008 12:44AM]

it's not just one micro needle, it's a bunch of them, like a mosqito so it ends up taking the same time because of the amount of needles

[derX @ Jan 13th 2008 12:53AM]

Ahh.

But if that's the case, again, wouldn't the overall size of the needle just be increased again? It'll just be a bunch of small needles close to each other which would just feel like the alternative, one larger prick, no?

[Josh McGrath @ Jan 13th 2008 11:52AM]

not as i understand it, i read something about it in popular science a while back, and they said the needles are like microscopic, so even though there are a lot of them, it is still the size of a standard needle

[wickedpheonix @ Jan 12th 2008 10:12PM]

But... but... the children won't get that necessary childhood experience of a painful shot! What will happen to the children?!

THINK OF THE CHILDREN I BEG YOU! XD

... in all seriousness though yeah I concur/second the thoughts about time above - simple laws of physics here people...

[Gamer90 @ Jan 12th 2008 10:48PM]

This isn't practical, its not the prick that really bothers people its the fact that something is sticking into them (i.e. needle)that causes them to get all frantic. In their mind the prick hurts 10x what it really does just because they "see" the needle in their arm. A little needle would need to be "in" the person for much longer periods of time possible causing people to panic.

[Mythor @ Jan 13th 2008 5:07AM]

If this was actually true then much of the pain could be negated by simply NOT looking.
Looking or not has no effect on the level of pain, it's down to technique and location and the size of the needle.

[Davis Collins @ Jan 12th 2008 10:49PM]

If it is that thin, wouldn't it break really easily?

[austin @ Jan 13th 2008 12:09AM]

"reportedly been able to use "two-photon polymerization of organically modified ceramic (Ormocer) hybrid materials to create microneedles resistant to breakage"

read the article next time

[Ricky @ Jan 12th 2008 10:54PM]

I want to win!

[Ricky @ Jan 12th 2008 10:57PM]

Please note that this is likely for injections only. Something like drawing blood will probably always require a (fairly large-bore) needle. Getting stuff out is much different than putting stuff in.

[Eric Fourman @ Jan 13th 2008 1:13AM]

heh, if it's multiple needles I don't see how a diabetic could draw up the insulin to inject.

[Kurian @ Jan 12th 2008 11:00PM]

Wow it's really painless! I'm typing this on my PDA as my doctor is vaccinati.. AAAHHHHRGG -micro-piece breaks of and follows blood flow into heart-

[Juaquin @ Jan 12th 2008 11:50PM]

Wow, I think four in a row is a record. Congrats.

Hey Engadget - where's that double-post checker?

[Kurian @ Jan 13th 2008 1:11AM]

Believe it or not, after i posted, it showed the new page..WITHOUT my comment.

[Neebs @ Jan 12th 2008 11:11PM]

Won't make me afraid of needles.

[stitifier @ Jan 12th 2008 11:33PM]

The problem with smaller needles is that the smaller the bore of the needle, the more likely it is that the cells in the blood will experience some sort of mechanical trauma and risk hemolyzing. This, of course, can completely screw up your lab results. And of course applications when it comes to infusions would be limited with such small needles. So we're not likely to see these being used all the time for everything-- some amount of pain is going to be inevitable when you come to the hospital.

That being said, I'm sure that in the right setting, these needles would be very valuable.

[Reader @ Jan 12th 2008 11:43PM]

My assumption after reading the article is that it would be composed of multiple tiny needles, so fluid would flow just as fast as a large bore single needle. I might be wrong, but I always thought it would be a good idea so that might be where I'm drawing this conclusion from.

[klew @ Jan 12th 2008 11:44PM]

As stated by Ricky, injection needles are different than needles used to draw blood (no hemolytic risk). Other pain from injections results from pushing the liquid/medicine into a tissue faster than it can be absorbed. Regarding amount of time to push an equal volume through a smaller tube, wouldn't Bernoulli's Law play here?

[Loomis @ Jan 13th 2008 5:42PM]

To be all technical, the ultra small radius/length ratio suggests that the fluid flow is going to be dominated by viscous forces -- precisely where Bernoulli fails. Beyond that, mass conservation suggests that a smaller cross sectional area will lead to higher average velocities, which is probably what you're thinking.

For comparison, the abstract quotes 150-300 um needle diameters; a (tiny) 33 gauge hypodermic needle has a 203 um OD...but only a 90 um ID bore (says Wikipedia). So these needles are comparable to other needles used for drug delivery. The benefit may be that they could use a thinner wall, achieving the same ID and same flow rates, but with a slightly smaller OD.

There, that was painless.

[Ignatius @ Jan 12th 2008 11:51PM]

Awesome, now all we need is hyposprays.

[Bloobie @ Jan 13th 2008 12:36AM]

Already done, sorta. It's called a subcutaneous jet injector.

[mian @ Jan 13th 2008 3:42PM]

As I understand it, those still hurt worse than needles.

I got turned off to these ceramics when they first talked about how they "wouldn't" break. Yeah. That's not a mental image I'm going to be able to git rid of.

[Anthony @ Jan 13th 2008 12:05AM]

Maybe this has been already said (comments aren't appearing for me), but a needle that's so think it is painless to patients- makes me wonder if it's too thin to administer the contents of the shot...

[Anthony @ Jan 13th 2008 12:06AM]

Now everyone else's comments appear. Gees... Guess I'm not alone.

Years ago the military (maybe they still do this) used air to push in injections to save on metal needles. Hurt like hell, I'm told so these would be welcome by many.

[elmer92413 @ Jan 13th 2008 12:06AM]

Dear God, I hope these come soon! My biggest phobia is needles. If these could deliver as promised I'd become a new blood donor! (I've always wanted too, just to afraid of the needles)

[elmer92413 @ Jan 13th 2008 12:11AM]

To get around the fact that the needle is small, you'd just use a bank of 'em. Sort of like the bottom of a CPU. The combined volume of the needles should be more than enough.
I do so hope these come soon, I absolutely hate needles.

[Mangiok @ Jan 13th 2008 12:17AM]

They will surely use these to sedate ur nerves and use the bigger ones to collect your blood.

[Nick @ Jan 13th 2008 12:40AM]

That is what I was thinking. Numbing agent--->can have a huge needle following.

[soniiic @ Jan 13th 2008 12:39AM]

is it just me, or does the beginning prick not hurt as much as the actual injection of the fluid itself? i don't mind the preceding prick at all, but when the injection begins, it feels like a huge bruise, dead arm, being punched in slow motion... etc etc

and if i am right, why spend money on relieving someone some pain for a split second as the needle goes in?

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 13th 2008 12:48AM]

god damn. that's what i get for not reading EVERY comment. redundancy.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 13th 2008 12:47AM]

if it were the actual needle that hurt, this would be good. the most painful part is when they actually inject the medicine, after they prick you.

[ScareyJ @ Jan 13th 2008 1:35AM]

So true! I think the nurse gave me battery acid instead of a flu shot this year!

[Phrontage @ Jan 13th 2008 2:16AM]

I could see this being nice for newborns and the very young but as for adults, get over it...it is just a needle.
There are few things worse than being in the hospital emergency room and having someone cry and scream over getting an injection especially when it is an injection to help them control their pain.

[BobCarrot @ Jan 13th 2008 2:30AM]

Seriously, injections don't hurt that much. Spending money on researching this is just stupid when there are more important things in this world.

Like a decent healthcare system so we can actually afford to get injections, or something.

[saintchuck @ Jan 16th 2008 6:18AM]

Tell that to a diabetic that injects insulin 5 times a day, dumbass.

[Itchy Pajamas @ Jan 13th 2008 3:21AM]

Wouldn't it be dangerous if you sat on a bunch of these needles, since you wouldn't feel it? You'd have all these needles sticking in your butt and you wouldn't realize it.

[Dilan Jay @ Jan 13th 2008 3:52AM]

Think about a whole efficient way of assassinating people!

And those freaks who go around sticking AIDS infected needles to people will be thrilled.

It's all NOT rosy folks.

[benjasmine @ Jan 13th 2008 4:55AM]

From a skilled hand, both injection or draw can be painless. The reality is that a lot of nurses and doctors did not learn the skill well.

[brandy @ Jan 13th 2008 5:43AM]

benja .... u r so right