ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,303,405, issued on May 20, was assigned to Dynamic Balancer Systems LLC (Belmont, N.C.).
"Knee arthroplasty method" was invented by Franz W. Kellar (Gastonia, N.C.), Harold L. Crowder (Concord, N.C.) and Franz Austen Kellar (Gastonia, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of evaluating a knee joint including a femur, a tibia, and ligaments, includes: inserting into the joint a tensioner-balancer; moving the joint while using the tensioner-balancer to maintain predetermined distraction force or distraction height, and collecting height and force data; deriving ligament displacement data and load data from the height and distraction...