ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,310,839, issued on May 27, was assigned to CONMED Corp. (Utica, N.Y.).
"Expanding anchor" was invented by Andrew Kam (Odessa, Fla.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An anchoring system for a knee ligament reconstruction that can secure a graft within a bone tunnel. The anchor system includes an anchor having a tubular body extending along a longitudinal axis from a proximal end to a distal end. A conical head is fixed to the distal end of the tubular body. A series of expandable segments are positioned along the tubular body and moveable along the body into a compacted, deployed position where the segments expand radially to engage the insi...