ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,488, issued on July 1, was assigned to Acclarent Inc. (Irvine, Calif.).
"Guidewire for dilating eustachian tube via middle ear" was invented by Jetmir Palushi (Irvine, Calif.), Fatemeh Akbarian (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.), Itzhak Fang (Irvine, Calif.) and Athanasios Papadakis (Newport Beach, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A guidewire includes a guidewire shaft and an inflatable element arranged at a distal end of the guidewire shaft. At least a portion of the guidewire shaft is formed of metal, and the guidewire shaft includes a lumen that fluidly communicates with an interior of the inflatable element. The inflatable element...