Implantable medication-dispensing device

Claim 1

An implantable insulin medication-dispensing device comprising: a substantially rigid body having a top directed toward the skin and having a bottom directed toward subcutaneous tissue when implanted and having opposed sides; a chamber in said body having a movable diaphragm member therein to separate said chamber into an insulin reservior and gas chamber; a refill port in the top of said body connected to said medication reservoir, said refill chamber having resilient plug to permit transcutaneous hypodermic injection of liquid insulin medication from the exterior of the device through said refill port into said reservoir; a chamber port in the top of said body connected to said chamber, said chamber having a resilient plug to permit transcutaneous hypodermic injection of gas from the exterior of the device through said port into said gas chamber to control gas pressure in said chamber and to measure gas pressure in said chamber; an insulin medication-dispensing pump connected to said medication volume of said reservoir to cause periodic flow of liquid insulin medication out of said reservoir when said device is actuated, said insulin medication-dispensing pump having a pump chamber having an inlet and an outlet such that actuation of said pump causes flow of liquid insulin, an outlet check valve at the outlet termination of said pump chamber outlet directed out of said bottom so that insulin discharge from said outlet check valve discharges insulin out of said medication-dispensing device directly to subcutaneous body tissue to prevent draining of the pump or pump outlet between pumping periods and prevent body tissue from growing into said dispensing pump outlet; and actuation means connected to said pump for discharging medication from said insulin dispensing device, said actuation means being a manually accessible thrustor so positioned on one of said sides of said body that said thrustor can be transcutaneously manually actuated by transcutaneously manually grasping said opposed sides and actuating said thrustor for actuating said pump for dispensing insulin into the body upon physiological demand, said insulin reservoir, said gas chamber, said refill port, said chamber port, said medication-dispensing port, and said manually accessible thrustor all being mounted in said substantially rigid body so that actuation of said pump to discharge medication does not cause reduction in external volume of said substantially rigid body as a result of reduction in insulin volume in said reservoir.