US Patent Issued to Arthrex on March 25 for "Variable stiffness hammertoe k-wire and methods for use" (Massachusetts, Florida Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,964, issued on March 25, was assigned to Arthrex Inc. (Naples, Fla.).

"Variable stiffness hammertoe k-wire and methods for use" was invented by Chris Powell (Naples, Fla.), Matthew Fonte (Concord, Mass.), Robert Devaney (Auburndale, Mass.), Paul Fein (Maynard, Mass.) and Vincent Weaver (Sudbury, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising a wire having a first end and a second end opposite the first end. A first portion of the wire including the first end comprises a malleable region that is configured to remain deformed after bending, and a second portion of the wire including the se...