ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,251,512, issued on March 18, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).
"Physiologically conformable tracheal tube" was invented by Matthew J. Phillips (Carlsbad, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tracheal tube include a conformable conduit that forms a respiratory passage to transfer respiratory gases to a patient. A helical inflatable lumen is formed in or on an interior surface of the conformable conduit. Fluid transferred into the helical inflatable lumen causes the inflatable lumen to assume an expanded configuration to expand an outer diameter of the conformable conduit relative to an unexpanded configuration of the hel...