Blood collection assembly with lancet and microcollection tube

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawings in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout the several views thereof, FIG.
1 illustrates the invention as employed in a blood collection assembly generally designated 10 having a housing 12 separated by a wall 18 into a lancet portion 20 of housing 12 and a blood collection tube portion 22 of housing 12.
As can be seen in FIG.
1, portion 22 contains a blood microcollection tube 26 supported by vanes 21 extending from wall 18 and the outer walls of the housing 12.
In viewing FIG.
1, it will be seen that the dimension of the entire housing 12 is substantially larger than the conventional blood microcollection tube 26.
Therefore, the user has a larger piece of material to grip while handling the problem of making a blood collection from a patient who may be alarmed at the prospect of having a skin puncture and the pain engendered from such puncture.
For example, whereas a conventional blood microcollection tube is about 43 millimeters (mm) in length and about 9.
6 mm in diameter, housing 12 may be the size of a conventional 10 milliliter evacuated tube which is about 100 mm in length and with about a 16 mm outer diameter.
With such an arrangement the housing of the invention may be mounted readily in a standard "test tube" centrifuge for certain laboratory test procedures.
Thus, the housing of the invention may be within the range of between about 75 and 125 mm in length and within the range of between about 14 and 18 mm in diameter which eases the handling facility of the structure of the invention greatly, for the environment of blood collection from a lancet puncture.
For those experienced in handling such objects, it will be apparent, furthermore, that the larger containers are much easier to label, a requirement in handling blood test samples.
Thus, the assembly 10 includes a flip-top cap 14 mounted on a strap 32 so that the user may expose the lancet 24 for making a skin puncture with the blade 36.
The user, once the flip top cap 14 is opened, may remove the lancet 24 from the assembly and place the front end 35 of the lancet housing against the patient's skin