ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,336,699, issued on June 24, was assigned to DePuy Ireland UnLtd. Co. (Ringaskiddy, Ireland).
"Sensor enabled retractor for robotic surgery" was invented by Tarik Yardibi (Wayland, Mass.), Robert Brik (Brookline, Mass.) and Brice Dudley Jr. (Round Rock, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Sensor-enabled surgical retractor devices, systems, and methods are disclosed herein that can be coupled to a surgical robot during a robotic or robot-assisted surgical procedure to maintain health of retracted anatomy and prolong the amount of time until a surgical procedure must be interrupted to adjust a retractor. In some embodiments, interruption o...