A new, completely painless, hypodermic microneedle has been developed by engineers in India and Japan. The unique micro-electro-mechanical based suction system has a design that is based on the female mosquito.
The system uses a sucking motion to draw up blood, similar to the ritual of a mosquito. The needle could be used for various procedures such as drawing blood, injecting drugs and monitoring glucose levels for diabetics.
The needle is strong enough to penetrate as far as 3 millimeters into the skin and reach capillary blood vessels. It has been calculated that this needle can extract 5 microliters of blood per second. Regular needles have a diameter of about 900 microns while this new needle only has a 60 micron diameter.
This new needle promises to be pain free while collecting blood samples and injections. It works to extract blood and pump in the drugs. Pain free sure, but will it also leave a red itchy bump on your skin like a mosquito bite as well?
A mosquito is creepy enough as it is. I'm not sure I'd like to hear of a needle based off a mosquito because then it would conjure up memories of me feeling something on my skin, looking down and seeing a mosquito sucking away my blood. Then I'd really freak out at the doctor's office. What do you think of this new microneedle? Do you think it will make getting a shot any easier?
NewScientist via Medgadget
