ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,262,918, issued on April 1, was assigned to Globus Medical Inc. (Audubon, Pa.).

"Orthopedic fixation devices and methods of installation thereof" was invented by George Yacoub (Conshohocken, Pa.), Jeff Nichols (Medford, N.J.) and David Leff (Philadelphia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Orthopedic fixation devices including a pre-assembled double headed tulip assembly, having two tulip elements to receive rods, wherein the assembly may receive a bone fastener in at least one of the tulip elements. At least one of the tulip elements may include a saddle and a ring to attach the double headed tulip to a bone fastener."

The patent was filed ...