ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,471,978, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to Aerin Medical Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.).
"Eustachian tube modification" was invented by Jerome Hester (Menlo Park, Calif.), Andrew Frazier (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Gregory Ng (San Leandro, Calif.) and Scott J. Wolf (Menlo Park, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed embodiments relate to devices, systems, and methods of shaping, shrinking, opening, dilating, stiffening, or otherwise modifying a Eustachian tube and its surrounding tissue in order to improve the Eustachian tube's function. For example, patients with blocked, closed, or hypertrophic Eustachian tubes may be able to achieve ...