ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,266, issued on July 1, was assigned to Aesculap AG (Tuttlingen, Germany).
"Surgical instrument" was invented by Svenja Anhorn (Heroldstatt, Germany) and Franz-Peter Firmbach (Emmingen-Liptingen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical instrument for use in a knee joint replacement operation includes a reference block with a block rear face configured to bear on a resected femur, a stylus arranged on the reference block, a stylus tip configured to bear on the femur, and two reference feet that are spaced apart mediolaterally from one another and arranged on the reference block. Each reference foot has a foot upper face protru...