ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,921, issued on March 25, was assigned to ArthroCare Corp. (Austin, Texas).
"Knotless all suture tissue repair" was invented by Christopher Michael Rodriguez (Costa Mesa, Calif.) and Tri Nguyen (Garden Grove, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A knotless tissue repair assembly for attachment of tissue to bone includes an anchoring implant with a length of suture threaded therethrough. The implant is preferably a soft flexible three-dimensional structure. The implant may be actuated from a first elongate low profile shape into a second short radially expanded shape having a larger diameter than the hole through which it was placed....